portents of evil

This morning

2011-08-18T22:12:00.001-04:00

This morning I checked my emails and webcomics with a baby wrapped around my leg.

This warm, beautiful, chubby munchkin had rolled over in his sleep when I took over his mama's place on the couch while she had her shower, and had flopped his leg over my thigh and curled right in.

We stayed like that for more than an hour, sitting peacefully, he, snoring and snuffling, me, stroking his fuzzy wee head while I surfed the net and then the new IKEA catalogue. It was such a lovely, soothing feeling, this enforced quiet contemplation.

Unfortunately, it couldn't last. I had to pee, and monsieur burped and decided another bottle was in order. I mean, it had been an hour since the last one, was I trying to starve him?

But once that bottle was done, we went right back to our snuggle, him sleeping in my arms this time, and me just contemplating the wonderful little being lying across my belly, marveling at the glorious rolls and creases and chubby cheeks that have come about so recently, and wondering what the future holds for this fabulous little godson of mine. thankful that I am close enough and have the time now to see him so often and help his mama out as much as I can, wishing I could do more. thankful for the glimpses of what the future holds for me and my yet unknown babies. thankful that his mama and I found our way, finally, to being such good friends. thankful I came home to them yesterday to celebrate getting my first real job with baby cuddles and cooking.

Thankful his mama came home this morning before that diaper change.

Thankful that I was the one she called when he finally rolled over all on his own after I had left this afternoon.

Sucked in

2011-05-17T23:31:00.000-04:00

I got sucked into the most terrifying tv show this morning.

So terrifying that I had to change the channel at some parts.

So terrifying that I am pretty sure there is still half a bowl of Life cereal on the bookshelf by the TV.

Apparently terrifying does not go with breakfast.

What show was this you ask?

It was an episode of Dr. Who with David Tennant as the Doctor.

I believe the episode was called "Blink".

I am not an avid watcher of the new Dr. Who series, but I did watch all of the old ones when they were played, often in black and white, on YTV when I was little. My brother and I had definitely perfected saying "Exterminate!" like a Dalek, and I wanted my own K-9. If I do watch the new series, I like David Tennant as the Doctor the best, but I have only seen three or four episodes max. The episodes I have seen still had large elements of cheese to them, especially in set design or monster creation, which allowed you to separate yourself from the story a bit.

This one has stone angel statues that look like any garden statue (except when you finally see their faces, those still have a lot of cheese). Stone angels that move when you aren't looking. This is the stuff of my nightmares!

What is weird is that I thought the show would be scary right from the beginning, the girl jumps a fence and breaks into a scary old house for crying out loud. recipe for scary! And yet I kept watching...

but then I saw that the girl was played by Carey Mulligan, an actress that has been in a lot of things I have wanted to see lately, and then she finds a note of the wall from the Doctor, and I figured, "Oh, its Dr. Who, it won't be too scary...." So I kept watching. And then it got scarier and scarier, but by that time I had to know how it would end.

And the whole time I was thinking, "Oh my god! When did Dr. Who get so scary?!!!"

My mom came home and found me with both feet up on the chair, knees under my chin, with a death grip on the arms of the chair.

In the end, it was a really well done episode, I was really impressed actually...

I just don't know if I will sleep tonight.

The Last

2011-04-10T23:22:00.001-04:00

I think I am cursed.

I have a habit of only having a romantic encounter* with a guy a few days before I leave a place forever. Which, in my academic career, has been quite a few places.

The first guy was also my first kiss. It was an Indian guy, S, who lived at my student house in London, England. We all went places together, and somehow he usually ended up walking next to me on our way to where we were going. Then the night that my cousin arrived, the night before I left London on a trip with her, we all went out to a club. I really wanted to dance, and no one would dance with me, so I went to get a drink and saw one of the guys suggesting to S that he ask me. So I danced with S, and he kissed me, and then we ended up kissing for the next few hours on the dance floor, and home in the cab, and then when we got to my floor, I chickened out, said "Goodnight!" and ran to my room. I still remember the look of shocked disappointment on his face. Poor guy, I was pleased with how the night had gone! My cousin told me recently that she figured something had happened because I was spacing out on cloud nine for the next few days!

Second guy was in Victoria. He was a friend of one of the girls I worked with and we hung out as a group for most of the summer. One time friends of theirs from home were visiting and they had a tradition of cooking breakfast at someone's house the next morning, so I got invited to K's house. I ended up being the first one there and helped make breakfast. I got some pointed questions of where I had slept the night before from his visiting friends. After most of the people had gone, he and I and one of his friends hung out for most of the afternoon and he introduced me to a whole bunch of new music. I sent him a message on Facebook that night that when he had time, I would love to hang out with him again. A few weeks later we went to see a Rodin exhibit at the art gallery. Which turned into talking for a few hours in the gallery's garden, then dinner, then coffee, then going to see the movie "Once". Then the car mysteriously pointed its way to his house... and I went home the next morning. No sex was had people, I am not that kind of girl. He drove me to the airport a week later and then he drove to Newfoundland to do a masters before I came back to Victoria three weeks later. It might have been, but never got a chance.

The encounters have gotten decidedly less romantic since then.

Third guy was from my first masters that I met again in an elevator in Ottawa on my co-op for this masters. We exchanged emails and I did not hear from him again until the week before I left. He claims he lost my email until then. Anyway, we ended up having a coffee break together at work and had a really great chat. The coffee break was about an hour longer than it should have been! It might have turned into something if we had more time, but I left three days later.

And this brings me to guy #4. Nothing romantic about this one at all. The guy is in two of my classes, and we have not had anything to do with each other until we happened to sit next to each other last week and helped each other with our websites. Our program had a prom last night and he and his friend followed our group to the next club. They were both after a girl in our group. When it became obvious that he was getting nowhere with that girl, he came over to dance with me. We were not so much dancing together as occasionally doing the same stupid moves. I went to sit with the rest of my friends and he came and sat down occasionally, but my friend's boyfriend gave him a look, and he would go off again. Somehow we all ended up leaving together and when I was having trouble walking he swooped in to hold my hand. Then while my friends were ordering sandwiches at Subway, he asked me if it would be appropriate to ask me to go home with him. I said no. He took the next cab out of there. I regretted it a little because I had to hobble back to my friend's hotel room to get my flat shoes with no one to hold onto. I am not sure what is going to happen on Tuesday when I have two classes with him. Hopefully we can go back to politely ignoring each other!

I just don't understand though, is it something about "The End" that makes guys bolder? Or is it something about me that makes guys wait until the very last second? Am I that intimidating?

Once or twice I would be ok with, but four times?!! Geez! Some cruel joke the universe is playing on me! This last one especially, its like the universe suddenly realized I was about to leave here in a week and threw whoever was closest at me without really thinking about it, "Oh sh*t! C's leaving in a week! Uh... he'll do! =toss="

As soon as I am living in some place for longer than 4 months at a time, I am going to say "screw you!" to the universe and do something about this dating thing, but until then, I shake my fist at you universe!

*I wrote "asked out" first and then realized that in most cases I was not formally asked out at all!

Weird Kid

2011-04-02T23:28:00.000-04:00

So, I was a very imaginative child. I would spend hours by myself, telling myself a story. Often these stories got wildly out of hand, and ended in some horrible, macabre, gory way.

Seriously people, I once started singing a version of "On Top of Spaghetti" to myself that somehow ended in the battlefield massacre of millions of puppies!

I have no idea why my imagination was so messed up from such an early age (ahem, watching Star Wars when I was three, ahem), but it was, and it usually ended up with me in tears over the horrors that had befallen my characters, and running to mom, until I realized she just didn't understand.

I have no idea how my mother put up with it.

Scene: Kitchen, mid 1980s, mom making dinner.

Mom: So nice to have the kids playing quietly in their rooms. Kids, wash your hands! Soups on!
A: Yay Dinner!
C: =SOB= bwaaaaaaa! =SOB=
Mom: C! What wrong sweetie?
C: The kitty di-i-ed-d =SOB= bwaaaaaaaa!
Mom: What kitty died? Where? A? What did you do to your sister?
A: Nothing!
C: The kitty with the candle =hic= he ... he ... went up the stairs ... and the door wouldn't open ... and...and he ...he di-i-i-ed =SOB!=
Mom: What kitty?
C: The one on my wall =sniffle=
Mom: What kit-...? You mean the one on the tapestry? The one your Aunt made? On the wall above your desk?
C: un hun
Mom: The kitty on your tapestry died...
C: un hun
Mom: How...?
C: I was telling myself a s-story and the kitty died at the end...
Mom: Wh- ?........ I am sorry honey, that is very sad. Why didn't you tell yourself a happier story?
C: =confused stare= =uh oh! abort! Mom doesn't understand that stories go where they want, say no more, just start eating=
Mom: ...Well ... um ... eat up...?

As an adult looking back now, you can totally tell that she was thinking something along the lines of "WTF!!!! This kid is totally batsh*t crazy!!!!" or whatever the polite way of saying that in the 1980s would have been. Everytime my family didn't understand why I had done something, I just clammed up and wouldn't say any more. I had obviously miscalculated my observations of humanity somewhere and done it wrong if they didn't understand and therefore had brought shame upon myself.

Like I said: Weird Kid!

P.S.
Mom's line to explain to my brother why we were treated differently in terms of punishments and things when we were growing up is:

"Well, I could reason with you! There was absolutely no reasoning with her!"

Time for bed

2011-01-25T21:24:00.000-05:00

Just spent a minute scratching at a spot on my "p" key.

It would not come off.

Then I looked closer.

It was a tiny * in the bottom corner of the key.

Its supposed to be there.

Huh.

Directed Dreaming

2011-01-24T13:02:00.000-05:00

Early this morning I started to dream about finding a kitten in the dumpster behind my building, but since I was almost awake, my thinking brain took over and started presenting too many options for where the dream could go.

Like choose-your-own-adventure on speed.

There was no choice about bringing the kitten inside, it is winter. Then the dream suddenly produced posters proclaiming "Found Cat". But thinking brain took over and said that would take too much time, we needed to wash the kitty first. It was found amongst garbage after all.

Then the options: Which sink, kitchen? bathroom? bathtub?; What kind of soap, shampoo? liquid handsoap? dish soap? bar soap?; Does the kitty have fleas? Would a rinse with tea-tree oil and water get rid of them? In what ratios? Would it be safe for the kitty? Do I have anything else in the house that would get rid of fleas?

Then the rest of the dilemma: Am I keeping the kitty? What about Baz? A kitten should really meet Baz when it is a kitten, not once it gets established, but Baz is not here, she is at mom and dads. Do I want to spend money on litter and food if I am not keeping it? Should I call my cousin and ask to borrow some from her cat? Where will this kitty be contained? The bathroom is awful small to keep it in when I am not here.

Am I keeping the kitty? Am I not? Who will I give it to? How will I find it a good home? Where? When? Why? How? -

So I woke up. Far too many decisions for first thing in the morning.

What could have been a wonderful dream that I would have woken up from feeling wistful about the day in the future when I can have a kitty of my own, turned into a logistical nightmare that I woke up feeling very frustrated from.

Thanks a lot thinking brain.

Outside

2011-01-22T16:21:00.000-05:00

Outside it is -11C and snowing

There is something moving in the tree across the parking lot.

I have been staring at it for awhile trying to figure what it is.

It is moving back and forth, maybe a squirrel?

but it seems to be black and white, so.... woodpecker? in the snow? do they do that?

chat on facebook with my friend in Costa Rica (I think). She is telling me about the monkeys and parrots outside her window. I tell her about my mysterious animal...

... right when I figure out that my "animal" is in fact,

a shoe.

her comment? "Oh, those rare and endangered shoes!"

I have now been teased from the jungle.

Hello Again!

2011-01-22T15:54:00.001-05:00

Heya everyone,

Sorry about that, stepped out for awhile, but I think I am back now. Not quite sure of course. In any case, enjoy the new look, very fitting, I thought, for a library science degree!

So, things I did while I was away:

finished a summer semester of school which was mostly about children's librarianship
got only two co-op interviews and thankfully was offered a position at Library and Archives Canada
moved to Ottawa for four months for said position
had an awesome roommate (the best ever!) and a terrible landlady (just par for the course)
had a great job at LAC and learned a lot. Especially how to work with archivists, we are a weird lot
Saw one best friend for a few hours on Christmas Eve, and another for an overnight in T.O. both visits were way too short. We need to live closer!
moved back to London into a one bedroom apartment I am subletting from a friend who was lucky enough to get an extension on her co-op
started my last semester of my MLIS with 2 archives courses, web design, and the dreaded management!

I cannot wait to be done this degree! I am ready to be a grown-up with a proper job, having enough money to actually feed and clothe myself and have some fun too! I look forward to weekends and evenings that do not have any schoolwork looming overhead! Maybe live in a city long enough to know where I am going and how to get there! Live in a place where Baz can live with me again! Own a car, a house, ... a baby carriage?

I really hate this feeling of waiting for my life to begin.

I know that finishing this degree won't magically make all this happen, but it will at least get rid of that "stalled in neutral" feeling (that is probably a bad analogy since I only drive automatic)

At the moment I would just settle for having a reason to not still be in my pyjams at 4pm on a Saturday.

Finally!

2010-05-17T13:56:00.000-04:00

I am finally in all the courses I want to be in!

It involved attending 8 classes last week, but it was worth it in the end, but very nerve wracking, especially when the add/drop form that I filled out on Thursday night did not actually register my course changes until this morning at 10am. I feel sorry for the poor secretary who got all those panicked emails on Friday!

I did not get into the archives conservation and preservation class, but I am ok with that. I attended the first class and discovered that if I actually wanted to do conservation I would have to do a years apprenticeship anyway. If I can't get into the class next time around, I am sure practical workshops will be just as useful.

I was worried about getting into digital libraries class, and while discussing this with a colleague, I remembered that I was 4th on the waiting list for Folktales as well, so I attended that class the next day. The prof said she was fine with having extra people in the class, so I went to our departmental library to email the secretary to let me into the class. There I discovered an email that said that I was enrolled in digital libraries!

So now, instead of not having enough courses, I had too many and had to choose one to drop! My friends convinced me to drop our last required course, Management, because it is compressed this summer, and therefore much more work, and it is a course that will be offered every semester, unlike the others.

So this summer, I have three storytime classes, intro to archives, and digital libraries.

Can we say "Summer or fun"?!!!!!!!

The algorithm

2010-05-11T23:54:00.000-04:00

There is an algorithm that chooses classes for you in my program.

You choose your top 7 classes and rank them, and then the algorithm puts you in those classes if your ranking holds up to the number of people wanting to get into the class.

Of the 7 classes I gave it, it gave me 2. That, plus my required course meant I was enrolled in 3 courses instead of 5.

I am on the waiting list for my other classes, which means that this week I am attending 6 classes in an attempt to get into at least one of the classes I wanted. Why? Because all of the courses I am remotely interested in are wait listed. Even my reserves that I did not put in my 7. I found another class to enroll in provisionally, so I am currently enrolled in 4 classes. That class is turning out to be very interesting, so that is ok.

Now, I am ok with just having 4 classes this semester, but it means that I will likely have to come back to make up an extra semester at some point.

What I am mad about is that they claim that there is no order to how people get into classes, it is all based on this magic algorithm.

Now, if that was the case, how did I end up being 4th on the waiting list for 3 of my five waitlisted classes?

Need to go back to bed

2010-05-05T16:17:00.002-04:00

I just bought a box of salad greens.

I put them in the fridge.

As I was closing the fridge, I saw a box of salad greens and thought, "Oh damn, we already had a box!"

Then I realized I was looking at the box I had just bought.

Two Weeks of Dog

2010-05-05T15:34:00.000-04:00

I am puppy-ed out! I love dogs, and they pretty much like me, but I haven't lived with one for almost 4 years now since our dear baby bumpkins passed away, so it is nice to be home in a puppy-free environment for a few days.

I am just not used to the constant movement and need to entertain them or they will chew/do something they shouldn't. I am kind of worn out!

Don't get me wrong, they are all lovely dog-cousins with their own little personalities and hilarious phobias and bad habits, I am just not used to them, and they are not used to me, so they were in constant states of "oh my god! the new person is still here! she might pet me! she might throw something for me! does she taste different this morning?" It is nice to get my fix once in awhile, but I sure hope my cousins don't have to deal with the hyperactiveness on a daily basis, cause it is very tiring.

I was glad to be heading back home to a quiet uneventful house.

Until we came in the door to two de-leafed flowers with their pots knocked over, and a little bunny looking guilty right in the middle of it, but not wanting to run away because the leaves were too tasty.

Is there any pet who leaves the houseplants alone?

Successful completion

2010-04-22T14:11:00.000-04:00

I have now finished one third of my library science degree.

It was a good semester, even though I think all of us at one point or another had a little breakdown and more than a few sleepless nights. Which was weird, because I do not ever remember a night before when i did not sleep at all, even a little bit, but I had a few this semester.

Even weirder is that I didn't really think I was stressed out most of the time, but my body did.

I definitely have more grey hairs.

But I think I learned a lot, and I could definitely put my knowledge to good use right now if I wanted to. I also had some really good profs, and i felt really lucky in that respect.

I am also very excited about the summer semester. I did not get in to all the classes that I wanted to, but I am 4th on the waiting list for the class that I really wanted, so I just have to attend the class for the first few weeks and hope someone drops it, or the prof decides to let me take the class anyway.

My weekend this summer starts on thursday at noon, and goes till monday at 6pm. I am only going to take 4 courses instead of 5, so I will hopefully not be nearly as stressed out as i was this semester. also, one of the courses ends in the middle of july, so that should make the end of term a bit easier to handle.

I also made a lot of really good friends this year, and we cemented that friendship with numerous pub lunches to calm each other down over the last few weeks of the term, so that, and knowing what is expected of us now will make this semester coming up a whole lot easier!

I am excited!

Down to the wire

2010-04-13T11:08:00.000-04:00

I have a huge paper due tomorrow. Have i written any of it? no. well, ok, i have an introduction, and i have it all laid out, and i know the points i am going to make.

It is just the will to write it that is not there.

I have no idea if this is the kind of thing he wants at all, but this is what i am going to write about, so there! nyah!

I know I have the time to write it, it isn't due until midnight tomorrow, and i have to stay at school until after 10pm tonight, because there is a wine tasting group happening right outside my bedroom tonight, so i will get no work done here if i stay.

but convincing myself i have plenty of time doesn't really help me with getting started.

argh!

and i made cheese things for a party at school today, so now my apartment smells like hot cheese.

When i get this paper done, i only have a minute of a ten minute presentation to do, and then i am done for the semester! then i get three weeks off and start the torture all over again!

Sorry this is weird and stream of consciousnessy but i am a little addled at the moment, and all i can smell is cheese!

Can you tell this paper is going to make a whole lot of sense when i finally get around to writing it?

Google me!

2010-04-08T22:53:00.000-04:00

EEEEEEE! I am on Google Scholar! You can Google me and actually find me and not just references to the character in the Johanna Lindsey novel (which apparently doesn't come up any more, hmm, trumped by social media). Well ok, you can Google Scholar me and find my Master's Thesis, which, i must admit is awesome, and I got very excited in class when I found this out and was told by three different people that I was "too cute". can you tell my voice is going up octaves and getting faster! This can only end in jazz hands! and maybe some jumping up and down!

EEEE!!

Bad Day! Bad!

2010-04-07T20:13:00.000-04:00

Arg! Today was not a good day!

I had far too much work to do and not enough time to do it in so I was anxious all day.

It started with a class about i have no idea what, that none of us had had time to do the readings for, which somehow morphed into some woman in the class talking about changing the world through the ethical guidelines for libraries. And one day every child shall have a rainbow to sleep on and a unicorn for a pet. I was totally not in the mood and had to try really hard not to storm out of the class or punch her in the face. The only high point is that the prof actually liked something i said and kept on referring to it, and then I got to prove him wrong about something and the whole class backed me up!

And then I got to go deal with a prof who accused me of cheating on an assignment because five of us got the same wrong answer (totally did not cheat, just happened to get the same answer as five other people because it is right, but the prof doesn't know enough stats to say so, or explain to me how it is wrong, because I was right!)

Then I spent from 1pm-6pm editing a group assignment. Damned thing is 20 pages long and written by five different people, so yeah, took awhile. bah!

And whenever I got up to stretch or ask one of my group members a question, other kids from my class would say, "What are you working on? theory? cataloging? online searching?" and I would say, "No, I haven't even gotten to those yet, I'm still editing research methods!" and getting more and more worried about the amount of work I have left to do. Far, far too much work. And only a week to do it in!

ARGH!

Tainted Victory

2010-04-01T20:14:00.002-04:00

I have never pulled a april fools joke before. Or any kind of prank really. But this morning when I woke up, I thought, "This is my year! I am going to do it this year!"

I even had the perfect idea. This is course registration week for my program, and we have all been posting our course selections in our facebook status. So, even though last night I cheerfully posted my course selection, this is what I posted this morning:

Last night after I registered I really thought about things, and decided I don't want to be doing this any more. I have unregistered, and I am not quite sure if I will be coming back to London after this weekend.

I am not exactly sure what response I was hoping for. I hadn't really thought it through past "this would be a perfect april fools joke!"

The first response I got was from G who said "really? are you ok?", so I immediately set up a chat with her to let her know it was an april fools joke and i was fine. Before she answered though, the next response came in from another girl that said "is this an april fools joke?"

So that was the end, but I was fine with that. until the next response that came from a guy in our class who is a friend of G's

"Burn.On.You. G, that will teach you to care about people in public!"

Noooooo! That was not my intention at alll!!! I would never want someone to feel that way! People have made me feel that way my entire life and I know how horrible it is for people to laugh at you for a normal human reaction of concern. All of my friends (and "friends") have always called me gullible my entire life, but when I tried to be skeptical, they always got offended and ostracized me for not showing concern for someone's completely unbelievable problem. Damned if you do, and double damned if you don't. So then I thought about the whole joke and realized that that was the kind of joke it was, and how horrible it was to have made someone feel that way. So I started apologizing profusely on facebook, but G and the guy both said that I had got her fair and square and shouldn't be apologizing.

Then in class tonight, the guy sat next to me, and I said "you didn't have to be so mean to her!" and he said, "what? i am not the one who made a joke so they could laugh at people. and you got her fair and square" "That wasn't my intention," i said in a small voice. "Well, anyway, G and me are buddies, and she can take some ribbing." but i had apologized to her in person a little earlier, and she was ok with it, and said I shouldn't apologize, but I could tell she was still feeling kind of stupid for being a gullible person.

arg! So, I guess the joke is really on me! April Fools pulled a whopping good prank on me by convincing me that it would be a fun thing to do. And even worse, people were congratulating me on a good joke in class.

Never Again!

Investigating

2010-03-23T17:23:00.001-04:00

So, the other day, I did something quite unthinkable. I conducted what one of my friends referred to as an "investigation into my past."

I asked one of the guys from our high school group of friends why he thought no one had ever asked me out in high school.

I know you are all terrified by this, I was too, but i figured even though it is something that people don't usually ask, I really wanted to know. needed to know. and I knew that this guy would know the answer if there was something to know, and that he would give me a straight up honest answer. he really is the only person I ever would have asked this question of among any of the guys i have ever known. ok, straight guys i have ever known. lets face it, i needed a heterosexual, alpha male perspective on this.

It actually went quite well. I have my own ideas of what I was like in high school, and it was very good to get a different perspective on myself.

I remembered being a geek with a zitty face, bad hair, and hardly any friends.

That stuff didn't even make it into his recollections. He remembered liking being around me because I was "smart, funny, and always in a good mood." The only thing he remembered that he didn't like about my appearance was my short upper lip, and my flat bum, which he admitted are only personal preferences.

He actually liked the way I dressed, and my long neck, my beautiful hands, and my eyes. My "get lost in them for a thousand years enchanting. like have to throw your eyes in the pits of mordor enchanting" eyes.

oh, and my "gigantic knocks"

He said it was probably my smartness that scared guys off, "guys were just intimidated by a woman that could be more alpha male than the males could." he says guys have fragile egos and think that if they are not dominant they are doing something wrong. plus, i didn't seem to be interested in the stuff guys are interested in, and guys are pretty self-absorbed.

All in all, i found it a pretty good exercise. I am still processing how to incorporate these ideas into my life, but it was really good to see what kind of a lasting impression I make on people, and how the fragile high school male ego perceived it all.

New Specs! New Specs!

2010-03-16T21:45:00.003-04:00

So, internet, here are my new glasses:

These brown ones are juicy couture, the style is called "behave". Perfect for a librarian, yes? they are brown with bone coloured stripes down the arms. They are my business specs.

and these are my funky glasses, they have the magnetic clip-on sunglasses too, which is spectacular! you can't see it in the photo very well, but the arms are the same colour as the front of the frames, a burgundy red, and the insides are an awesome lime green. very cool.

The great glass dilemma

2010-03-12T14:55:00.000-05:00

I need new glasses. I haven't bought new glasses since 2006.

I was already starting to get antsy about not liking my current frames anymore, and then I have been having eye problems and headache issues, so I went to the optometrist, and discovered I need a new prescription.

This started "the great glasses hunt" of 2010.

It always takes me awhile to find glasses I like, because I am particular, and I know that I will be wearing them for awhile. I have only owned four pairs of glasses over the 15 years that I have had to wear them.

The hunt started while I waited for my mom to pick me up from the optometrist, they had some very cool styles, but we ran out of time.

Then, we went to Hakim up the street from me in London, and all they had was crap. And ugly crap at that.

Then, I was on my own. I went looking in the local mall, and I found some nice frames at one shop, but quickly decided that being blind, and going looking for glasses on my own was a bad idea. Well, ok, the decision was made for me when I had to get so close to the mirror in the store to see myself that I bumped my nose and left a smudge.

So then, I had to find someone to shop with. Someone who understood glasses, and the desire to have funky ones in awesome colours. I asked a girl that I talk to from my course who, it turns out, has three different pairs of glasses on the go at the moment. We combined the trip with a general shopping day, and topped it off by going to see "Alice in Wonderland" in 3D with some other girls. It was a successful trip, even though the store was packed, but the pair that I had really liked from the first time was only there in a different colour combo, so it had to be ordered in the colours I wanted, but we were pretty sure that those were the right glasses for me.

I went back today because they told me the glasses were in, with a different friend, because the first girl was sick. So I tried on the frames, and my friend instantly agreed that they were perfect. Then I turned around and told the saleswoman that I wanted them, and she said "Good, so what is your other pair going to be? They are 2 for 1 you know." Oh no, I did not know, the store was packed on the weekend, and so someone had failed to mention it (namely her, since it was the same saleslady).

What do I do now? I had tried on almost every pair of glasses in the store on the weekend, and no other ones even came close! Luckily, since we were the only ones there, the woman actually had the time to help us, and she suggested some of the designer frames in the centre, that I hadn't even bothered with before. The second ones she pulled out were fabulous, so I went with those.

So I should have two new pairs of glasses on wednesday! One funky red pair with lime green on the inside, and they have magnetic clip-on sunglasses; and one slightly more business-like pair that are brown, but have a light stripe down the arms. My friend said "they are calmer that the other ones. They can be our job interview glasses."

Don't worry guys, I will post pictures when I get them. Because they will be fabulous!

Now my dilemma will be deciding which ones to wear each day!

Weirdness, thy name is library science

2010-03-05T16:27:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, in research methods class, we had a guest lecturer talking about doing research on Second Life.

He is conducting research and handing out surveys on Second Life.

Apparently, of the top occupations of people on Second Life, Librarian is only second to the porn industry.

Yeah, we're that weird. At least some of us.

The class was pretty split between those who thought it was kind of cool, and were very interested in taking the distance ed course that occurs entirely on Second Life, and those who thought it was really creepy.

I am still kind of undecided. I think it is kind of creepy, but then, I hated any kind of false face when i was a child. I was even scared of Polkaroo. I don't like people hiding who they are, putting on a different persona, being someone they aren't. The world gets very precarious that way. and there is a lot of weird stuff that goes on there too. One of the girls who was taking the online course wandered where she shouldn't have been in Second Life, and her avatar was sexually assaulted.

But, I am fascinated by the fun and good things at go on there. A friend of mine actually conducted a concert of people playing in front of their computers on Second Life once. The guy who spoke to us does his research on storytelling in Second Life, like story circles and stuff.

Oh well, I probably won't even have time in my course schedule to take that course if it is even offered when I am here, so I suppose it is a moot point.

But let's face it. The creepiness factor is sooooo going to win out!

Glasses Dilemma

2010-03-03T17:55:00.000-05:00

I need new glasses. New glasses are expensive. I have expensive taste in glasses.

I have no money.

See the problem here?

now, the health insurance for grads at this university will pay $200, but that just covers the cost of some frames, not even the super expensive lenses!

Also, I am blind and living in a new city, so I have enlisted the help of a classmate who said she would come look at glasses with me this weekend.

Then, she suggested I look on clearlycontacts.ca because they have cheap glasses. reaaallly cheap glasses compared with the stores I have been looking at. all designer names and everything.

But, is it weird to order glasses online? They say you have 30 days to return them if you are not satisfied, or they don't fit, or whatever, but it still seems strange to me. what if I reaaaaally don't like them? You know how they look really cool on the racks in the store, and then you try them on and they are horrifying? or they hit your ears in the wrong place? or squeeze your temples? these are things you just don't know until you get them in your hand! granted, they have a webcam thing on the site where you can "try on" glasses, but they only have about a third of the styles that they carry that you can do this with.

but is it worth it when the final price is $117.00? compared to the $400.00 the girl quoted me at Hakim.

I could get some prescription sunglasses too!

The Voice

2010-02-28T23:10:00.002-05:00

This weekend I had to interview my father for a school project. My handwriting is pretty bad, and slow, and my memory equally so, so I decided I needed to record the interview and then transcribe it. That meant interviewing my dad in front of the computer, the only voice recording device in the house.

Everything was fine ... until I heard the playback.

I sound like a small child.

This won't be a surprise to anyone who knows me. You have heard my voice anytime you talk to me.

I only hear my own voice maybe once every couple of years, and it always shocks me. Horrifies me.

Because inside my head? I have a rather deep voice, and a deep belly laugh.

Outside my head, I have a high child's voice and a tinkling giggle.

(ok, so I did only giggle on the recording, none of my trademark big laughs, but still, it is an indication)

This sounding like a child often makes people not take me seriously. Maybe it meant that I didn't get those jobs I interviewed for, who knows. I know my voice get's higher and more giggly when I am nervous.

Maybe this is what my brother is trying to get at when he yells at me on facebook to take care of the dead mice on my own and not let my landlord do it for me. Maybe a "take charge" attitude will make people more quickly see my capabilities, and ignore the fact that I sound like a little kid and still get mistaken for an undergrad.

I too often take the "shy violet" approach. I didn't speak until I was about three years old, when suddenly I went to a family reunion without my mother and brother, the people who spoke for me. Armed with the instructions "don't let daddy fall asleep", when we got back home, my dad said dazedly to my mom "She never shut up. For three days, she never shut up". And I haven't yet, (or so the legend goes, really, I kept my mouth shut all day at school, so the floodgates burst by the time I got home).

The shock of hearing my own voice makes me cringe at what other people hear. But, I have been complimented on my laugh enough in the last few months that I know it is not a bad voice, it is just not what I think it is. This experience should remind me of what other people hear, and why they are so quick to treat me like a child, and that if I want to be taken seriously, I should act seriously.

And maybe wear my hair less in pony tails.

Three Cheers for Canadian Women!

2010-02-26T00:21:00.002-05:00

Wow! The Canadian female athletes are definitely owning the podium!

I got home from class tonight to see the medals being given to the women's hockey teams, and then watched the figure skating. Obviously no surprise in the Canadian women winning gold! The girl who won gold in figure skating certainly deserved it, and Joannie definitely earned her place on that podium. Those were some beautiful performances.

In my travels, I was surprised to discover that Canadian women are some of the strongest and self-possessed women in the world, because our culture allows us to be, and encourages us to be. It might not always feel like we have equality with men in all things, but we come the closest to having equality that I have seen, at least in what we are seen to be able to do and accomplish, and the pride we are allowed to take in that.*

It is nice to be able to show that to the world on our home ice and snow!

*I think the same is probably true of most of the US as well. North-America really kicks ass in this department.

Socializing

2010-02-24T23:42:00.003-05:00

This evening I went out for dinner and drinks with some of the girls from my program to celebrate some birthdays. It was a lot of fun.

One of the girls brought her boyfriend, but they only stayed for the dinner part. I am sure the poor guy felt very uncomfortable with all us girls, but he valiantly tried to participate in the conversation.

As soon as they left, it was amazing how quickly the conversation turned to girl stuff. Horror stories of the university dorm, how not to flash people in the locker room, boobs, birth control, periods, underwear, and more boobs. Fabulous!

It was a little weird being the oldest person at the table. The birthday girls were turning 23 and 25, and the other two were 22 and 27. I am more used to being the youngest in a group. Age didn't really seem to matter though, because no one was trying to tell anyone how to do something better, or taking a position of authority. The only thing that made me feel old was that I really don't care about flashing people in the locker room anymore.

It was really nice to just talk. I haven't done that with a group of girls in a long time.

Cookies make the world go round Edited, can you guess where?

2010-02-19T18:23:00.003-05:00

The other day, my mom and cousin and I went over to our friend's house to have tea with her and her daughter.

Our friend, J, is 102 1/2 years old. One of her grand-daughter's has just had J's second great-grandson.

J grew up in the same small hometown as my grandmother in Northern Ontario. J was my Aunty E's best friend, and J's younger sister was my grandmother's best friend. J and Aunty E went to teacher's college together.

When I was growing up, J always timed her visits up to my Aunty E's house on the lake in Muskoka for when we were staying at the cottage across the bay, so we saw her every summer.

Although she can't see or hear very well anymore, she still remembered what program I am currently in (something most of my family don't remember), and when my brother would be graduating from university, and the things that we are interested in.

When we sat down to tea, J asked for some of the oatmeal cookies that her daughter had made to be put on a plate for her. She started talking about how good the cookies were, and how she had eaten these cookies since she was a little girl.

Mom and I took one look at them and knew that they were the same cookies that we have always made as well. We call them Grandpa Lakes' cookies, (my great-grandfather) because they were his favorite cookies. Mom had just made a batch the morning before. Mom and J's daughter compared recipes, and found that it was exactly the same.

Obviously there was a bit of recipe exchanging going on in that small northern town, funny how the one that we still use today is for the world's simplest and tastiest oatmeal cookies. What a good way to connect two families.

The recipe is likely Depression era, since it requires no eggs, and the recipe makes a lot of cookies. It also may just be Scottish, or even from BC, since that is where J was born, and it looks like the recipe came from her family.

So now, I am going to pass the recipe on to you.

Oatmeal Cookies:

- cream together

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla

-in a separate bowl, combine

2 cups flour

2 cups oats

-put 1/4 tsp baking soda in a 1/4 cup measure.

-=Magic Time!= pour boiling water over the baking soda in the measuring cup, and immediately pour the mixture over the creamed butter and sugar.

-immediately stir in the dry ingredients.

-roll dough into 1 inch balls, place on cookie sheet and flatten as much as you can with a fork (wet the fork before each cookie to prevent sticking)

-Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes, or until bottoms are golden brown.

-let cool on a wire cooling rack

-eat.

iTunes, you are not helping

2010-02-08T22:47:00.002-05:00

I am having a bit of a pity party today. I am mad at this program because an 83% is their equivalent of a 95%, so the majority of marks people get are in the 70s, which just makes you feel like the biggest failure. It doesn't help that we have three things due each week and I have only received 3 marks back so far, for projects that I seriously can't remember writing, even though I only handed them in a week ago. The whole thing is just go go go and I didn't even have time to stop and realize that the stress could have been relieved a bit by dropping down to only 4 courses, so I missed the drop date. argh! I just feel like I am barely keeping afloat on the edge of a big tidal wave.

and so, I am procrastinating instead of writing another paper for a jerk of a prof who writes nasty comments masquerading as constructive criticism. This generally involves surfing the net while listening to music, but my iTunes is not co-operating.

oh, its spewing music out alright, but it seems to be stuck on music that reminds me of guys i used to date. it has seriously only played music from the same 4 albums for the past hour.

thanks iTunes, I guess it wasn't enough to feel like an academic failure today, I also need to relive all my relationship failures, the biggest one being the total lack of a relationship, or even the prospect of one!

ps. also realized that I seem to date musicians, but luckily I don't actually have any of their music on my iTunes, that would be a bit much, they just liked to recommend stuff. and we hung out listening to music.

pps. in hindsight, going to see a very awesome romantic movie with the world's best soundtrack at the end of an awesome day-long date was perhaps not the best idea if i had wanted to avoid feeling a pang every time i heard the music. like when it won an oscar.

ppps. there seems to be a mouse in my ceiling. my ceiling made of ill-fitting acoustic tiles. also, there is evidence that something nibbled the top of my cereal box. ewwwww.

New Header!

2010-02-04T16:56:00.003-05:00

Ok, so I was bored today and made a new header.

you may not have noticed because it too is orange.

I am loving orange right now, but it is one of the only colours I can't really wear, so I put it everywhere else!

Also, I needed to procrastinate and not think about the paper I have due tomorrow. I have written it, and edited it, but I am worried it isn't quite right. it took me less than an hour and a half to write it. it is only 300 words, but still. an hour and a half seems like too little time. I am soooo second guessing myself on these things. as long as I get over 70 on each project I am fine, so I guess I shouldn't worry. argh! I keep thinking I am missing something. like maybe some brain cells.

I am soooo cool

2010-02-02T18:07:00.003-05:00

This morning it was very cold outside.

So cold, that the lip balm that I had applied right before I left the house froze on my lips.

I did not discover this until I went to open the glass doors into my building and saw my reflection.

My lips were a shocking opaque white.

I rubbed most of it off (I had been quite liberal in my application) and luckily by the time I made it up two flights of stairs, the rest had melted, and I was a normal colour again.

Now, there have been colder mornings than this in the past month, so I wonder how many times this has happened. I am a little scared now.

No wonder the guy I met on the footbridge jumped a bit this morning!

Becoming a mean mom

2010-02-02T12:14:00.003-05:00

So, yesterday the rabbit escaped the bathroom while I was brushing my teeth and made a mad dash for my bed. This was the brushing of teeth that happens five seconds before I need to be out the door. She hid right in the middle of the foot of the bed. This bed is a whole unit, and I think it would take five or six burly guys to even make it budge, so I was forced to leave her there until I got home.

When I got home, my landlady wanted to meet the bunny, so she came down with me, and we sort of got a cute little silhouette of rabbit under the bed, but she refused to come out. I assured my landlady that miss baz was litter trained and she wouldn't have done anything under the bed.

Once she went back upstairs, I made some discoveries that suggested miss baz had not in fact left her post under the bed all day. likely, once i was gone, she heard all the noises upstairs and was too terrified to move.

I decided this was not a good state of affairs, who knew how many other times she would try the same trick? so I took matters into my own hands and found a solution:

that is right, I have boxed in my bed. this is the stuff that I usually make baz a cage with, but she is living free in the bathroom at the moment. I had to tie it on with yarn. I have now ruined all that was fun about our apartment. I am such a mean mom. I also caught her and cut her toenails!

Epilogue:

as soon as I finished getting it all tied on, I settled in on my bed with a stack of articles to read. In my shifting around to get comfy, one of the articles slipped down between the mattress and the headboard, under the bed. the bed that I had just blocked all access to. It was an article I need to write a paper on. I ended up having to lift up the mattress in order to reach it. =sigh=

One of those days

2010-02-01T11:45:00.004-05:00

Ever had one of those days when everything was going fine, until you check you email and wish you never had?

When you discover that the first paper you ever wrote for this degree has been returned to you.

When you start to question just how he is going to mark the rest of your papers if this first one was supposed to have been marked "leniently".

When you wonder if the three other papers you have since handed in in other classes are up to snuff either, and maybe you will fail this whole degree because you misunderstood what was required of you in general

When you have another paper due in an hour and have no time or inclination to rewrite it and it was fine last night but doesn't seem so good now in light of this other fiasco, and two more due on friday.

grrrrr.

The smell of clean

2010-01-31T17:53:00.002-05:00

Every once in awhile today, I caught a wiff of something, and stopped to smell. It was the smell of my laundry. I finally used the scary high efficiency washer and dryer here. Yesterday was the perfect day for it, the washer was empty and my landlords were away for the day. And I hadn't done any laundry since the 9th of January.

The only snag to the laundry plan was that my landlords were away, which meant that I still had no idea how to operate the scary-expensive brand new laundry system. Then a met a very practical classmate at the grocery store who said "Can't you just figure it out? aren't there usually instructions under the lid or something?" She made me feel silly because she had to go to a laundromat to do her laundry.

So when I got back, I decided to bite the bullet and do my laundry, crossing my fingers that my landlords either came home before I started, or didn't come home until I was done. Then, when I had my first load in the machine, I realized I had no detergent. All that discussion of laundry at the grocery store and I forgot to get the most important ingredient. So I borrowed some. Then I really crossed my fingers that they didn't come home until I was done.

The thing is, I usually go for detergent that doesn't smell like anything. I am an itchy person, especially in the winter, so I try to avoid anything that might aggravate it. So, now I am left with two loads of laundry that smell all detergenty.

And I love the smell right now, but it is so going to get old in a few days. Also, after the initial, "=sniff= mmmmm", my mind says "ewww, think of all the chemicals you are breathing in right now!" I can only assume the smell dissipates after a few days.

and now I have a headache. but that might be because I should have eaten more today.

I will remember to buy my own unscented detergent next weekend. It is on the list already!

sorry, my brain lost track of the point awhile ago, maybe its the fumes.

Outlet: Moebius scarf

2010-01-29T18:22:00.003-05:00

So, here is my new moebius scarf. I just finished crochet-ing it a few minutes ago. I had started one the first weekend I moved here, but I didn't have an internet connection then, so I did it wrong, but I got some slightly better instructions this afternoon and finally did it. As you can tell, it is in a net pattern, which means I only stitched every second stitch, so it was super fast and easy. Plus I really have no idea how it works, but I worked it in the round, from the centre outwards, which means that somehow, the outer edges are actually just one big circle, there is just one edge. It blows my mind and I shouldn't think about it too much.

If you want to make one, chain your first row however big around you want it (sorry, it is impossible to count mine now), then do one full row flat, like normal. This pattern is one double crochet every second stitch, with a chain stitch in between. Then, with your row on a flat surface in front of you, fold the top left corner over meet the bottom right corner, then flip the bottom left corner up to meet the top right corner, join the ends together, and start the next row, chain four, skip a stitch and make a double crochet in the bottom the second stitch. just keep going round and round, joining the ends of each row and chaining up to the next row until you are satisfied with how wide your scarf is.

anyway, the reason I was looking for patterns online today is that I am participating in a knit-a-thon to raise money for our Librarians Without Borders chapter next weekend. We are raising money to build a library in Costa Rica. Actually, we already raised the money to build it, this money is to put books inside the building once it is done. The knit-a-thon is for 6 hours nest Saturday, so I am trying to find enough to do, which is hard when I only like doing small projects. I was going to save this project, but I got going trying to figure out the online instructions, and got carried away.

Update: Lighter Day

2010-01-27T12:17:00.002-05:00

Ok, so apparently all the plugs in my room are on the same circuit, so having your laptop charging, printing off schoolwork, and running the space heater is ok, but don't try to boil water with the electric kettle as well. That is bad, and apparently overloads the circuit, causing it to break.

I was luckily able to easily locate the breaker panel when I got home today, and also easily found which circuit I was looking for, because it was the only one switched to off. So I flipped it back, and all is well!

Well, except perhaps my vanity, because I didn't see a mirror until break time, an hour and a half into class, and it was quite obvious that I had not looked in a mirror this morning. Also that I needed to have washed my hair. =sigh= Oh well, I don't think anyone had the impression that I was cool anyway.

Dark Day

2010-01-27T07:47:00.002-05:00

The power is out in my apartment. My basement apartment. With one window.

Ok, I guess I should clarify that it is really just the perimeter power that is out. The overhead lighting in my bedroom and kitchen still works, and thankfully the plug that the fridge is plugged into. But all the rest of the plugs are out as well as the bathroom. Which means that I had to plug in my alarm clock in the kitchen in order to get up in time for my 9am class.

Also, I can't have a shower because I can't see anything in the bathroom.

And it is cold and I have no place to plug in the space heater.

And it is dark and cold and stormy outside.

Could I please just go back to bed, where it is nice and warm and toasty under the feather duvet?

Proof

2010-01-22T16:26:00.004-05:00

See?! She really does like her Bacardi Rum house! Not that you guys doubted me, or needed proof, I just think she looked cute all snuggled up around her food dish.

She was totally asleep in there until I stuck the computer in her face and tried to take a picture. She is quite mad at me now because the hours from 10am-10pm are asleep times. She will punish me later when I want to go to bed by running laps around my bedroom and jumping on my head and perhaps giving me another foot thump to the boob.

Ain't she a sweetie?

Better Butter

2010-01-21T13:54:00.002-05:00

Last night I decided to make Better Butter*. My aunt has made it for years, and I am not really a fan, but it does mean that you can have spreadable butter right out of the fridge and not have to resort to margarine, which I hate. I know you can buy it now, I think they call it "spreadable butter", but it is so much nicer to know exactly what you are putting on your food.

So, I made it, and all seemed well, until I took the lid off the blender, and caught a whiff. It smelled slightly flowery.

I do not recall my aunt's ever smelling flowery.

In hindsight, I probably should have washed the blender first, it had been in storage for over a year and came from a neighbour before that, so who knows what has been in it, although the lid was on, and it wasn't dusty inside.

Also, I used olive oil, and I think my aunt just uses a vegetable oil, so that could account for the yellower colour as well as the flowery smell. I am really hoping that is it.

I haven't tried it yet, I am a little afraid to. I only made 1/2 cup of butter worth in any case, so it is not too much of a tragedy if it is inedible.

Hopefully someone will let you know if I die of suspiciously flowery Better Butter. Maybe they will put that in my tombstone.

*Better Butter recipe: equal parts softened butter (eg, 1lb of butter =2 cups) and some kind of vegetable oil (olive, canola, sunflower), blend in a blender until combined, put in a container with a lid and refrigerate.

all moved in

2010-01-20T20:48:00.003-05:00

Baz moved in with me on the weekend. She is currently living in half of my large bathroom, but I haven't put up her extended cage, so she has the run of the bathroom. And my bedroom when I open the bathroom door in the evenings. Then she runs laps around my bed.

I leave the bathroom light on for her all day, because the bathroom has no window, but she was really pissy with me last night, so I figured she might need some darker space.

So, this afternoon, I made her a little house from one of my moving boxes:

Two hours later, I went in to check on her. She had moved her house where she wanted it, and pulled her food inside.

I think she might like it.

UPDATE: she has finally rediscovered the ability to jump up on furniture! yay!

INSTANT RETRACTION: she just warning thumped my boob. ow.

I think I like it

2010-01-19T19:33:00.002-05:00

I think I am starting to like this library school thing.

I am still not sure if I like all of the classes or not, well, considering I have only had two of them more than once so far, but I am liking the people, and some of the things I am finding out.

I like that we get to do actual practical assignments. Today we had a group assignment to catalog a random collection of things from our prof's kitchen. I worked with four other people that I hadn't even spoken to yet, and we all brought our different ideas to the table when designing our catalog. My control freak nature came through, and I actually said "Don't you put things on the wrong side of my kitchen!" to a guy in our group who wanted to put the meat tenderizer with the appliances. But I, perhaps not to subtly, led my group to victory in having the most logical organization in our catalog. We even broke out our new vocabulary, which was awesome!

We also had a career's night today for Special Librarians, and I found out that I definitely do not want to be a corporate librarian. Ever. But the discussion was good, and the ideas that they gave us were great, so I was really glad I went.

The problem I am finding is that I spend all my time at school. First of all, I have a three hour class every single day of the week. On top of that, we are encouraged to attend two IT workshops on Tuesdays. I could also attend a different student group meeting every day of the week, and there are numerous other meetings and guest lectures throughout the week. I left my house at 11:30 this morning and got home at 7:15. Seven and a half hours in one building. I even have a locker. Tomorrow I at least get to switch it up a bit by having a class in a different building.

So, things are going well. For now, we shall see how things go next week when I have two assignments due!

Kitted

2010-01-17T10:06:00.004-05:00

My parents used to run a B&B up until the first weekend of August this past summer , when we moved.

Occasionally, guests would leave items of clothing behind, most often socks and underwear caught in the bedclothes. These would get washed and then, because my parents didn't realize they had been there in the laundry, they were most often put into the most appropriate person's drawer. I have lost count of the number of pink lacy panties I have removed from my drawer over the years, "Not Mine!"

Some clothing items, if they fit, or were a full pair of socks, we kept.

I can dress in a shirt, jeans and socks that were all left behind at the B&B.

I thought this random allocation of lost clothing would have finished with the B&B, but when I came home this weekend, I discovered a stack of clean laundry on my bed, at the bottom of which was a pair of pyjama bottoms that were not mine.

In fact, I actually remember the old English gentleman who had worn them.

I have no idea how or where these pants surfaced from after six months, but when I later did my laundry, I discovered that I had to put them on, or walk around the house pantsless.

Mom saw me in them and said, "I don't know how we missed those when we were packing up your stuff to move."

"Because they aren't mine. They belong to some old man from the B&B."

"Oh? Really? Well, they fit you fine.

... Did he leave the top behind too?"

"No!"

"Oh, too bad."

My walk home

2010-01-14T12:23:00.003-05:00

My walk home from school involves a cute little one-person-wide bridge over a half frozen river, and a path that takes me past another college which has a daycare.

Today as I walked past, there were four kids playing in the snow in front of the building, and six parents hanging around chatting on the sidewalk.

One little girl was sitting by herself on the snowbank, yelling at the top of her lungs.

"Ah! Oh! Stop, Barry Pepper! Stop! Ah! Oh! Ah!"

Her voice wasn't whiny, she was just yelling in short little bursts, with pretty much no inflection at all.

None of the adults were paying any attention.

Only one of the kids jumped a bit.

She turned and gave me the biggest smile when I walked past.

Her dad (I assume) was facing the other way, talking on his cell phone, "What? Oh yeah, that's her. She's playing with her friends."

That's soooo not the dog

2010-01-12T20:18:00.003-05:00

Last night I was dreaming about two people sitting at opposite sides of a table writing. I was both one of the people writing and a person watching the two people. When I was watching, I was annoyed, and looking out the window, only glancing back occasionally, like I was on the lookout.

Then the other person got up and left the table abruptly, leaving his pen rocking on the table.

It kept getting louder and louder.

I got annoyed and told the other person to pick up the pen, but it just kept getting louder.

I woke up.

And realized that the mousetrap under my bathroom sink had finally caught something which was wildly fighting for its life, flopping around in the trap.

Why can't I be awoken from my dreams by a dog licking my face like on TV?

PS, got home and my landlady says "I couldn't find the mouse, our son must have gotten it already." 5 minutes later, her husband comes downstairs and says, "Our son did not get the mouse, so fingers crossed its still there!"

It was. Phew!

School Again

2010-01-12T11:02:00.002-05:00

Well, I am here. I don't have internet at my apartment yet, so I am writing this in the hall in my school building.

Things are going pretty well so far, orientation was good, if a little boring, and the classes i have had so far have been good. I already have an assignment to complete this weekend though, but they are all pretty short assignments, so I hope they aren't too bad. I made up my big dry erase calendar last night, and was a little freaked out by the number of assignments. And that was just for the two classes I have already had.

I got quite a shock on orientation day when I found out that tuition was due that day. At UVic it hadn't been due until the end of the month, but they want it here before you even begin! I ran to the bank after orientation and found out that they had not put my student loan extension through yet. Amazing what you can get done at a bank when you start to cry. Half an hour later, I got a call from the teller to say that my loan had gone through and the money had already been sent to the University. yay!

I get to go home this weekend because I don't have a class on Friday, so that will be nice. It will also give me a chance to get Miss Baz, because there was no room in the car for her when we moved down on Thursday.

I am sure there is more, but I am tired this morning because I was awakened at 4:30am when a mouse got caught in the trap under my bathroom sink and started thrashing around. I left a note on my landlord's kitchen table asking him to remove it sometime today.

See? adventures already!

2000-2010: The decade of the university

2010-01-03T11:55:00.005-05:00

It just hit me today that this was the start of a new decade. Why this didn't hit me during the week when I was reading all those "decade in review" newspaper articles I have no idea. I guess I am a bit slow to catch on right now with all the stuff I have to do to get ready to move and start school again.

But what really hit me was that I have spent the entire decade in Universities. Ten whole years spent in institutes of higher learning, and I am going back for more!

So here is a short decade in review: the education edition:

2000

I was in the high-school graduating class of 2000. We thought we were awesome because none of the other kids would ever get that privilege. Our grad dance was ok, even better because they had finally found some medication that would make me feel better after a year of some weird arthritis thing, so I was able to dance. My parents felt so bad that I had been sick all year, they let me have an after-prom party at my house with all my friends. It was fabulous!

Then I started university just up the street at University of Guelph. I got to live in residence even though my building was actually on the same street as my parents lived, a 12 minute walk away.

2001

My first summer job at a Lodge in Muskoka. Best and worst experience ever. I worked and lived with a great group of young people, but the job sucked and the people I worked for were even worse.

I lived in an apartment downtown with one of my best friends. We quickly realized that we should never have lived together, but we still had good moments of fun.

I started studying history in my second year. All went well until I missed half of my final exam, but I explained what had happened and my T.A. stood up for me and said I was his best student, so I was able to finish writing it. My life would be completely different if i hadn't.

2002

I had a semester in London, England. It was awesome. We had classes in Art Galleries and saw a different play and concert every week. Plus we lived with kids from all over the commonwealth, and I had my first kiss.

2003

I got back from England and lived with my parents for the rest of my undergrad.

I also started working for the 1891 Census project as the first student employee, and worked for them until I moved to Victoria.

2004

I finished up my undergrad with one last semester in the fall of 2004. I completely fell in love with history that told the story of ordinary people. I discovered the dataset that was the start of my Master's Thesis and decided to go to grad school.

2005

I continued to work for the Census Project at Guelph and applied for Grad school.

In the fall, I moved to Victoria, BC, and started my Master's at the University of Victoria.

2006

More masters, awesome friends, moved from crappy house to better house, became Vice President of the Graduate History Society.

2007

Not so much working on the masters, having too much fun as VP and as a T.A.

2008

I decided to get the Masters Thesis done and over with, so I moved back home to Ontario in September and worked on it in my parent's basement.

2009

I finally defended on June 15th! huzzah! I was fabulous.

And then I decided I couldn't get a job with just a history masters, so I applied for the MLIS program at Western, and I start on Friday.

A decade of University, and I'm not even done yet.

Bacon

2009-12-30T21:57:00.002-05:00

The fabulousness of bacon can not be overstated.

Bacon plays a big role in my family. There was quite an upset on Christmas morning when it was discovered that there was nary a piece of bacon in the house. Major oversight on Santa's part. Our eggs and stollen just weren't the same with the sausages that had been intended for the stuffing (nor was the stuffing sans sausage).

The lack of bacon led the tasty treat to become the topic of conversation for the festive season. Meals of bacon past were lovingly revisited. Recipes featuring bacon were drooled over.

In the middle of this bacon revelry, my brother revealed this piece of decadence. Bacon Blondies, or "Miss Piggies". I cannot wait to try this recipe. It was developed by a friend of my brother's and he won a prize for it at a cooking competition. My brother got to try the prototypes. He almost started drooling just telling us about them. The final recipe was made with bacon that the guy cured himself in sugar and cinnamon, but the ones my brother tried were made with storebought bacon, and he thought they were wonderful. I am thinking maple bacon. mmmmm.

But the bacon madness did not stop there!

What could possibly top the craziness of brownsugar cake with chocolate and bacon you ask?

This afternoon I discovered my mother watching bacon porn.

Christmas lunch

2009-12-23T22:07:00.003-05:00

A few of my friends from university happened to be in the same general geographical area on Monday and decided to have our annual Christmas lunch and news catch-up session.

We had a great lunch, and were able to cover all the high points of news (highest being an upcoming wedding for M and a thesis defense for J, congrats girls! well, and I guess my starting my MLIS).

But, when we first pulled into the parking lot, we looked up and discovered someone else having his own special Christmas feast:

mmmm, pidgeon.

He was still there when we left the restaurant, but there was decidedly less pidgeon:

This guy was less than 10 feet away from the front of our car, and the same distance away from a rather busy street, and nothing was going to make him move. Happy Holidays Mr. Redtailed Hawk!

Sad Day

2009-12-23T10:24:00.003-05:00

This is my last day as a nanny. It is kinda sad. Especially since I am very soon going to be living all by myself in a new city.

It has been really nice living with my cousin and her little family for awhile. I got to hang out with the coolest little guy all day long, and then I had a beautiful large space to go to be all by myself.

Plus, I got to cook for other people and have them appreciate my food. I know my mom appreciates it when I cook too, but we spend the meal analyzing the dish and what could have made it better. Here, they took what I gave them and ate it with gusto (or added habanero salsa or hot sauce if it wasn't spicy enough for them). The one time I expressed that I thought a meal hadn't quite turned out, they said, "Oh, this wasn't how it was supposed to taste?", so I stopped analyzing the food out loud.

Last night I had already gone down to my room when my mom called, so I had to go back upstairs to replace the phone after we hung up. I don't usually go back upstairs because I don't want to disrupt the bedtime routine. But the little monkey was still up, playing and watching a Christmas special. He came into the kitchen to see what I was doing when I replaced the phone, so I picked him up and carried him back to the living room when I was done, and sat with them for a minute. When I left to go back downstairs, I got halfway down the steps, when I heard him running and crying, and I turned around and saw the shadow of his little feet under the basement door. So I quickly went back upstairs, "Oh, I am sorry, was I not allowed to leave yet?". I ended up watching the end of the Christmas special with them while he showed me his new bath toys. It is nice to know I am loved.

I am so going to miss having a little guy to squeeze and cuddle and tickle all day. Those giggles are priceless. Can you tell I am sooooo ready to be a mom? I guess I better get started on looking for a husband. Maybe Santa will bring me one for Christmas and I can just skip the whole awkward dating thing.

The morning show

2009-12-22T10:52:00.003-05:00

This was my train or thought this morning:

My brother's apartment building is really old, it has big landings.

The building I lived in in London (England) was the same age, it had big landings too, they turned them into bathrooms.

I really liked the room I took my showers in every morning there. It had a nice big frosted window that let the morning sunshine in.

Plus, some of my friends used that room too, so I got to say hello and have a chat when I got out of the shower.

Hmm, wait a minute .... it was only the guys hanging out in that stairwell waiting for the shower. Most of the girls used the showers in the main stairwell. But that was just because they lived at that end of the hall.

I wore my bathrobe to and from the shower. Why don't I wear that bathrobe anymore?

Oh, right, its kinda short.

...

Oh, now I know why there were guys lining up to wait for me to finish in the shower.

Oh dear.

Probably best that I realized this 7 years after the fact.

Not what I wanted for Christmas

2009-12-19T07:59:00.002-05:00

We are all sick here. Kinda hard not to get sick when there is a teething toddler running around with his hands in his mouth bearing sickness and and then sticking those icky snotty slobber hands in your mouth. Yeah, its been pretty gross here, what with wiping his nose every few minutes and being thrown up on.

The thing is, I get sick every Christmas, and while this head cold is a welcome change from the usual stomach flu, it isn't any better. And despite to promises of my Neti pot, which I have used twice a day, my cold still progressed to the constantly running nose stage. Blech.

No, I do not have H1N1, or "the hinny" as my brother calls it.

And instead of sleeping, I am having these weird dreams about a plastic dump truck and the saving of Christmas (too much Treehouse).

I just wanna go to sleep and wake up all better. Can I get that for Christmas?

Advent Day 16

2009-12-16T19:15:00.004-05:00

The best part about the holidays is the food.

We have traditional food exchanges with various friends and family. People plan their holidays around the food my mom makes, and we delight in the yummy things that come our way.

My mom likes to make baked goods, so almost all of her friends plan their Christmas morning breakfast around her goodies. She makes cinnamon rolls for a couple families, a coffee cake for another, and stollen for us an a few other families. Mom puts almond icing on the stollen, and occasionally bakes a ribbon of marzipan inside, Christmas morning is not the same without it.

The food that comes in is just as good. Last weekend I got to partake of our friend's Melton Mowbray Pie. Delicious, thy name is Melton Mowbray Pork Pie! mmmmm. We are looking forward to receiving cheese balls, homemade bits and bites, fruit cakes, the best shortbread in the world, and various other cookies and candies.

And of course there are all the Christmas dinners! We have family Christmas dinner on Christmas day, numerous dinners with friends, and a second family Christmas dinner when my cousins from the States can make it up to see us, and then occasionally we have a dinner on New Years Eve.

mmmmm, I am salivating just thinking about all the yummy yummy food. mmmmm.

Advent Day 15

2009-12-15T19:46:00.002-05:00

I heard this song on CBC this weekend, on the show Tapestry, the song itself is awesome, the video is a bit cheesy in bits, but a good concept. (the radio program is on again on Thursday night apparently and it was a good listen if you wanted to catch it)

Advent Day 13

2009-12-13T12:29:00.003-05:00

Tree of 2005, we were teased for getting a small one.

Note the Noma church from the 1940's underneath

Ok, so if you hadn't guessed, I quickly ran out of quotes for Advent. I suspect more organization needs to go into such an endeavour.

So, instead of quotes, I will now move onto my family's Christmas traditions.

Today my dad and I went out and wandered around a snowy field in freezing rain with a saw looking for a Christmas tree.

We have always gone out and cut our own tree, no pre-cut trees for our family. When we were little, I remember going out to the tree farm with my dad and brother, picking the perfect tree for mom, cutting it down, and figuring out how to tie it to the car and bringing it home, and then holding it up for inspection in the driveway when we got home.

As we got older, it became the thing that my brother and I did together when he came home from school for Christmas. We wandered around fields for hours, my brother eventually whining, "Carry me!", which generally led me to sing a chorus of "Carry me, Carrie" (in case you were confused, my brother is almost 3 years older than me and a foot taller).

The last few years, it has been my mom and I going out to get the tree, we made use of our feminine wiles and got the "young lad" at the tree lot to cut the tree for us.

This year, my dad and I went out together for the first time in more than 10 years. We went to new place, and what a mistake, the guy was really just selling off brush from his bush. We eventually discovered that he was selling the spruce trees in his field, they were few and far between, but they were at least Christmas tree shaped and sturdy enough to hold ornaments. So we went out into the field, and I saw a good tree about half-way across, so I set off walking directly there across the field, and told my dad to take the well-trod path to avoid stumps and pitfalls.

So I found the perfect tree, and walked right up to it, and suddenly found myself lying down in the snow with my leg knee deep in a groundhog hole. I was in the middle of a farmer's field with a very painful twisted ankle.

Luckily by the time my dad got there, it had stopped hurting enough that I knew I would be able to walk back to the car. Then, while we were cutting down the tree, my dad cut his ear on a lower branch.

When we finally got home and listed our injuries and the difficulties we had encountered, mom said, "See, there is no way that your father and I can do that on our own. That's it, we are buying an artificial tree in the sales after Christmas."

As I sat down to ice my ankle and discovered a goose-egg on the back of my calf, I conceded that it might be the best plan, as long as they got one with the lights built in.

It is the end of an era.

Snow

2009-12-11T14:01:00.002-05:00

We are having snow here. Alot of it. My cousin lives in a rather windy location, so not only do I get to look at the snow falling, but for the brief moments when it isn't falling, I get to see it being blown around by the wind. There is another 4 inches of snow on the bbq this morning, and we used the bbq last night!

I love snow, when I am warm inside, or it is a calm sunny day perfect for tobogganing and snowfort building.

The thing is, I haven't really had to deal with snow for a long time. I lived in Victoria for three years, where we maybe got a week of snow the entire winter, and the Christmasses I came home to were remarkably green. One year the only snow I saw was a few wisps on the way back to the airport.

Last year I didn't have to go out in bad weather because I was working on my thesis, I could wait for good days to go outside. It didn't really snow all that much last winter anyway, the most snow I saw was when we went up to my cousin's in the north for a few days and walked on the bay. I didn't even get boots until January.

So this year I am a bit nervous. I am moving to an extremely snowy city, and I have to walk to school and to groceries. I will have to actually make sure I have emergency supplies in case it is too scary to go outside for a few days. I have class every day and attendance is mandatory.

I have been having nightmares of falling on my way to school and breaking my wrist. I lie awake planning how I would get help. I know I pass right by the university's hospital to get to my building, but I can't remember if they have an emergency room. This is actually keeping me up at night.

It is crazy. I am not worried about classes, just the weather.

Also, I am not really outfitted for cold weather. I need a proper winter coat, ice grips for my boots, and more wool socks.

Maybe Santa will provide.

Yes, I am nervous about starting over in a new city and new school. Argh!

2009-12-10T21:24:00.003-05:00

Not the part where the quote is from, but where Stephanie finally loosens up, hilarious!

Toni - "A man who lies cannot love."

Stephanie - "That sounds like something out of a fortune cookie"

- Toni (Goldie Hawn), Stephanie (Ingrid Bergman), in Cactus Flower

Sorry, too tired to think of anything else, besides Cactus Flower is an awesome movie!

Advent Day 9

2009-12-09T19:41:00.004-05:00

"No road is long with good company"

- Turkish Proverb

Speaking the same language

2009-12-08T20:27:00.002-05:00

Today the little monster and I were being lazing about after his nap, watching some Treehouse, when one of the shows had an alien on it.

The alien spoke gibberish.

The little monster thought this was hilarious!

He was laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes.

He never laughs out loud at the TV, he might smile sometimes, but never the full on giggle.

It was really hard to tell if he was laughing because the alien was talking funny, or if he was laughing because he finally found someone who spoke his language and it was the first joke he understood.

Whatever it was, baby giggles are an awesome way to start the day!

Advent Day 8

2009-12-08T20:19:00.002-05:00

"There is a crack in everything,

that's how the light gets in."

- Anthem, Leonard Cohen

Advent Day 7

2009-12-07T19:42:00.004-05:00

"The children were nestled all snug in their beds

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads."

-A Visit from St. Nicholas, Clement Clarke Moore

ok, so this was just an excuse to post pics of my gingerbread house from two years ago. I have gingerbread on the brain, I am planning a gingerbread lighthouse for this year!

Advent Day 6

2009-12-06T22:17:00.002-05:00

Since today is the first Sunday of Advent, the day we light the Hope candle, here is a story about hope.

Advent Day 5

2009-12-05T21:33:00.002-05:00

"What if you said yes?"

-Graffitti downtown Guelph, (I am too tired to figure out who said it first)

Advent Day 4

2009-12-04T16:27:00.002-05:00

"A life lived in fear is a life half lived"

-Fran, Strictly Ballroom

Advent Day 3

2009-12-03T10:09:00.005-05:00

"Mom smells like woodsmoke. All the time I kept on smelling her =sniiiiiff= and thinking, 'Mmmmm. Bacon.' "

-my brother, at a memorial service.

Advent Day 2

2009-12-02T20:33:00.006-05:00

Obviously not a hyacinth

"If of thy worldly goods thou art bereft,

and to thee alone two loaves are left,

Sell one, and with the dole,

Buy hyacinths to feed the soul."

-Author unknown, my grandmother's favourite saying

Look after Aunt M up there Gran!

Advent Day 1

2009-12-01T19:24:00.003-05:00

Thought for the day:

"Never let a little thing like complete and total humiliation stand between you and a good time."

- T.D., Martha Speaks

Yay! First day of Advent! Now, to try and find a "thought for the day" for every day until Christmas!

Goodbye

2009-11-30T22:13:00.004-05:00

sorry this pic is not good of either of them, but photos of them "cutting a rug" were on someone else's camera, but I will post them asap

One of my great-aunties died last week after an extremely short bout with lung cancer. Well short in that she only actually knew it was lung cancer the day before she passed away. She thought she just had a bad cough left over from a summer cold and the doctor gave her a puffer. She was too busy trying to sort out my great uncle's medical problems to bother with something as simple as a cough.

She was an awesome fun auntie. Her husband is the youngest of my gran's siblings. He was twelve when my uncle was born. They have always been the fun auntie and uncle. They also always treat everyone the same, it didn't matter what age you were. My great uncle laughs and jokes in the exact same way with the little kids as he does with the adults. My mom remembers my auntie letting her take their one year old son for a walk all by herself when she was eight.

The best memory I have is of dancing with the two of them at their grand-daughter's wedding last summer. They were almost the first ones on the dance floor, and danced more dances than most of the young people. It didn't matter what the music was.

Shelter

2009-11-29T19:53:00.002-05:00

I have a place to live in London, ON!

Woo Hoo!

I have a bedroom, a bathroom, and a kitchen. It is just big enough for one person. In fact there is only one chair at the kitchen table. Also, the only window is in the kitchen, but as there isn't really a door between the kitchen and bedroom, it shouldn't be too bad. It is a walkout basement, and the yard backs onto a park with lots of trees, so it is really pretty.

My mother is certain that the small space will ensure that I will spend all my time on campus studying.

It is 15 min walk to the grocery store and mall (dangerous), and 15 min walk to my building on campus. Which is good, since the city bus drivers are currently on strike.

The people whose house it is are very nice and they have an awesome dog, which is a hunting breed.

Which could be a problem for me having Baz the bunny with me. But, we will try it out, and if it becomes too much of a problem, mom and dad will come and get her. I am thinking of keeping her cage in the bathroom for an extra line of defense.

I will only be living there for one semester, so I am sure it will be just fine for 4 months. Then I will either be on co-op workterm, or have made enough friends in the program to find new roommates, or sublet from someone who is on workterm.

All is well.

Torture of the Innocent

2009-11-26T20:26:00.002-05:00

Today we took the little monster to the allergist.

He was great in the car and great in the waiting room, well, ok, the stairs up to the offices. Old building, one common waiting room in the old lobby and then a big steep staircase up to the offices (totally not accessible to those with mobility issues, I can only assume there was an elevator somewhere). Anyway, monster spent the waiting time showing all the old people in the waiting room how well he can climb stairs, and then flirting with the receptionists at the top.

Once we got into the office the trouble started.

First of all, he did not like sitting on the crinkly paper on the exam table.

Then taking off his shirt and being attacked by a stethoscope was a crying offense.

Then he had to be held on his mom's lap in preparation for the nurse to come in. You do not hold the monster in captivity. This was also a crying offense.

Then the nurse came in, and not only did he have to be held even tighter by his mom, but I had to hold onto his wee little arm while the nurse dropped the allergens on his arm and pricked them. This was a screaming, twisting, face going purple offense.

And then we had to sit like that, me with a strong grip on his poor wee little arm and hand, his mom with a strong grip on the rest of him and his other hand, for 20 minutes.

20 minutes of tortured, vocal chord ripping screams.

We were able to distract him with some strawberries and blueberries for a few minutes, but then the nurse came in and mopped up some of the blood that had dripped down his elbow and told us we still had 10 minutes left, right when we ran out of blueberries and there were only a few strawberries left. We threw some Cheerios into the mix and bought a little bit more time.

He started screaming full force as soon as he saw the nurse again when she came to clean him off and check the results. He calmed down after that, then screamed again when we changed his diaper.

The thing is, we went there because we thought he was allergic to eggs and dairy. So all they tested for was eggs and dairy. And we found out that he was indeed allergic to eggs and dairy.

We asked the doctor about nuts, and he said, "Oh he shouldn't be eating them at his age anyway, they are a choking hazard."

So we still have no idea if there are any other food allergies lying in wait, which is kinda what we wanted to find out.

Poor little monster went through all of that just to find out what we already knew.

What's in your dinner?

2009-11-24T09:23:00.004-05:00

Last night we made tacos.

Generally we have used the packaged seasoning mix, but we have been worried about potential food allergies, and a quick perusal of the ingredients list resulted in numerous red flags. MSG, maltodextrine, and numerous unpronouncable chemicals.

We found a recipe for taco seasoning online here, and cut it down to a pinch of red pepper flakes and no added salt, and added half a tablespoon of cornstarch, and then used it just like the seasoning packet (ie, added the cup of water). We also cooked the ground beef with real onions and garlic and grated zucchini (I add vegetables everywhere!).

It tasted really good, and by controling the amount of salt and eliminating the scary chemicals, it was ten times better for you!

And guess what? The tacos still dripped that radioactive orange goo!

Who knew orange goo was all natural?

Birthday

2009-11-23T19:03:00.002-05:00

I just finished up my birthday week!

I got two weekends of celebrations!

We went to Toronto and saw the Dead Sea Scrolls last weekend with my brother.

Then my mom came over the day before my birthday and brought yummy lunch from my favorite place and we went for a long walk with the baby in the sunshine collecting fancy twigs and milkweed pods for Christmas displays.

On my actual birthday, Sesame Street was even celebrating birthdays! and then my cousin and my friend took me out to a fancy dinner. and then laughed at me after my one and only drink.

Then I got a family birthday dinner on Saturday, and a family friends dinner on Sunday night.

Much better than some of the birthdays I have had. And my brother might actually get around to sending me my birthday present sometime before Christmas.

It kind of didn't feel like my birthday, and then sometimes it did. It was weird. Maybe I am just getting older and birthdays don't matter as much. hmm. not sure how I feel about that.

Daily Smile

2009-11-18T22:13:00.002-05:00

I have a thing for the show I Didn't Know I was Pregnant.

Almost every episode has a story where a baby was born in a toilet.

There is nothing quite as hilarious as Americans trying to talk politely about having a poop.

And to have it reenacted.

Signs and Portents (of good)

2009-11-18T12:04:00.002-05:00

I am occasionally a little superstitious.

When a big change is happening in my life, I look for signs that it is a change in the right direction.

When I got into the History Master's program, everything seemed to be falling into place. I got in to the program I wanted, I got the advisor I wanted, my best friend wanted to move with me, and I was able to borrow furniture from a friend.

But then when I got out there, things started to fall apart. I couldn't find an apartment for us to rent, the History department said there were no grad students around and I should come back during the first week like a normal person, my advisor couldn't meet me because he threw his back out golfing. I started panicking. This was not the way things were supposed to have worked out.

My first year did not go exactly as planned. I had kidney stones on my first day of classes and when I finally attended a class, the students were still grand-standing how much they knew and I started crying in class because I had no idea what they were talking about. I slowly understood that you didn't need to know all that crap, and I had some insightful things to say, but I spent most of my classes feeling overwhelmed and stupid. Which is probably why it took me three more years to write my thesis.

So why am I going back to grad school?

I learned my lesson. (I hope). I learned that fate and luck and divine intervention, if there are such things, can only get you to the door. I have to open the door and do the work to get what I need out of the program. And what I need are the skills for a lasting career.

Besides, I got into the program, and I have already found a good little apartment, walking distance to the school, for a very reasonable rent.

All signs point to yes.

A Big Headache

2009-11-15T20:48:00.002-05:00

Saturday was a gorgeous day here. 18 decrees C, sunny, just an all around wonderful indian summer day. I had plans, places I had to go, things I wanted to do. All my errands had to be done on Saturday because we were going into Toronto on Sunday for my family birthday trip to the ROM to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit.

But none of that happened.

Instead I spent the day in bed with my first ever migraine.

There have been a few times where I have had bad headaches where I really didn't feel well and had to lie down, and I often wondered if they were what people referred to as migraines. Let me just say now, if you have to ask, it ain't a migraine.

There is just no mistaking the "oh my god I have to lie down now or throw up" pain of the migraine. The "why are my glasses suddenly the wrong prescription" start to the headache. The desire to be as far away as possible from all light sources.

The worst part was that I couldn't see. Usually when I am not feeling well, I can at veg out in front of the TV, read a book, or at least flip through a magazine. I was so flipping bored! The two Tylenol and two Advil finally kicked in and I was able to sleep. Which was good, because lying there with only the pain to think about got old pretty fast.

I was feeling better by about 4pm, and actually got out to do a few errands after the sun went down, and went to hang out at a friend's, and when I left her place at 9:30, I was feeling close to normal.

Fingers crossed that was my first and only migraine, I feel so sorry for the people who suffer from them on a regular basis.

I Got In!

2009-11-10T09:18:00.002-05:00

I have been offered unconditional admission into the MLIS program at UWO, and I have accepted!

And I officially convocated yesterday from UVic, even though I couldn't go out to be there in person.

I am not sure if this MLIS is a forward, backward or lateral move, but I am all excited now, and I can't jump up and down because the baby is napping.

EEEE!

Choosing

2009-11-08T11:25:00.003-05:00

I had a horrible dream last night, probably heavily influenced by telling my cousin about the book The Taking the other day.*

Warning: This might be scary. You don't have to continue reading. Even I cut the dream short.

In the dream, most people had been turned into zombies or vampires, or zombie-vampires, in any case, minions of a dark lord.

The people who had not been turned were running scared and hiding out in our last stronghold, but our defenses were weakening, and pretty quickly the zombies got in and rounded us up.

They took us to an underground auditorium and we were forced to sit in the seats to await instructions. There were over 200 people, but the auditorium was only half-full.

Our "guest speaker" suddenly made his appearance. It was a walking, talking skeleton, where most of the flesh had been fried off, and what was left stuck to the bones was still sizzling and crackling. The piercing yellow-green eyes were the scariest part. It was the big D, and he gleefully began explaining to us how we were all soon going to be transported to Hell to begin our eternity of torture.

"What about the good people? I don't think I should be going to the bad place" someone yelled out.

It sucked in it breath and grudgingly admitted that some people didn't have to go to Hell. It obviously had hoped that no one would ask about that loophole so It could have everyone. "Everyone with a lit candle, stand up and make your way over to the front rows on the righthand side"

I looked around, not so many people had lit candles, but they were quietly standing up and walking towards the front. I panicked, where was my candle? I looked down and found I had a candle, but it wasn't lit. I looked around at people I knew and had fought side by side with, but they did not have candles and I thought they should. I tried to ask them if they too had unlit candles, but they didn't pay any attention. The last few people with lit candles were almost past me, and I stood up and slipped into the procession, hiding in the crowd and trying to make it look like my candle was lit.

I still didn't know if the people with lit candles were actually good and going to be saved, or the opposite, but the fact that they didn't rat me out and that people holding babies were part of that group probably indicated that they were the good ones. I still didn't know if It was actually going to let us go, or if It had just singled us out for a worse fate. I didn't know what would happen if they found me without a lit candle.

I just knew that I was terrified, but I had chosen to be good, and that was all I had control over.

Then I woke up.

*The Taking is basically about The Flood happening all over again because modern society is so corrupt, but instead of water wiping everyone out, the Devil gets to play, but only for a few days, so he pulls out all the stops, bringing Hell to earth, but at the end of his time, the rains come and wash everything clean, leaving only the good people and children. It is a good book, but parts of it are just plain scary and the stuff of my nightmares.

First Sentence (maybe?)

2009-11-07T10:01:00.002-05:00

The evil Hallowe'en book has become a bone of contention.

He loves the book. He can sit for hours playing with it.

As you can imagine, I look for any excuse to take it away. The noise gets so annoying after the second time.

The other morning, I made the mistake of carrying him into the living room so that his mom and dad could get ready for work, and he saw the book on the top of the fireplace mantle.

He put out his hand reaching for it and whining.

I said, "No, you can't have the book this morning."

He whined and cried some more.

Me: "Nope, no book."

Baby: "Ya b'!"

His mom: "Did he just say 'Yeah book!'?"

Me: "Yeah, I think so. ... No baby, no book."

Baby: "Ya bo'!"

Today's lesson: To get a child to use his words, just deny them something they really want. Plus you get to see that super cute "determined baby" look on their face!

What you can't have

2009-11-04T09:30:00.002-05:00

The water heater is broken this morning.

Never have I wanted a shower more.

I have spent a few days unshowered lately because the little monster is experimenting with different nap times, so why do I really really want a shower this morning when I can't have one? I am actually contemplating having a freezing cold shower because I feel too gross to answer the door to the repairman!

But I can't have a shower because the repairman might come any minute.

This reminds me of the time there was water contamination in my hometown. I was babysitting and the parents called to warn me not to give the kids a bath, or drink the water. I was relieved, the kids hated having a bath. I thought the kids would have a "yeah, no school!" snowday kind of reaction.

The kids started crying because they couldn't have a bath, and moping around the house saying "I wish I could have a bath, why can't I have a bath?"

yeah, that's right, I am reacting the same way the four-year-old did.

=whine=

True Scary Story

2009-11-01T10:51:00.002-05:00

Someone has a key to my parent's new house.

Someone who lives closeby.

Close enough that they can come and go in the time it takes me to drive my parents 5 min up the road and come back again.

They haven't taken anything yet, the only evidence that they have been here is that the front door that we never use is unlocked when we come home.

Maybe they are just checking if we have had the existing security system hooked up yet.

We had the locks re-keyed yesterday, something we should have done when we moved in.

The door has stayed locked so far.

Dream Fulfillment

2009-10-30T19:29:00.002-04:00

I have a weird alarm clock at my cousin's house.

It is supposed to wake you up gently.

Half an hour before the alarm time, a light comes on, supposedly dimly, and gently becomes brighter, "like the sunrise!". grrrr.

15 min before the alarm time, noises start. You are supposed to be able to choose. I get bird screeches every morning no matter what I do.

Then, on the alarm time, it goes "BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!"

This morning, I managed to sleep through the "sunrise", and woke up a bit with the bird calls, but went back to sleep without hitting the snooze button.

Then I had a dream that my cousin was poking me with a curtain rod (white with little ball finial on the end) and telling me "see? isn't this much better than an alarm clock?"

=Knock= =Knock= =Knock=

"C, are you awake? We have to leave at 7 this morning, sorry, forgot to tell you!"

Yup, just like in the movies and really bad TV, I was awakened from my dream about my cousin waking me up by my cousin waking me up. Awesome.

Jumpy

2009-10-27T20:23:00.002-04:00

The little monster has always been a bit jumpy, or "startles easily" as his mom says.

When he was about 5 months old he jumped every time I started laughing at a family dinner. Ok, so those who have heard my laugh know it is a bit, hmm, shall we say, loud? (I was once asked to come to the preview night of a new comedy play so that there would be someone audibly laughing their ass off in the audience for the critics) ok, so baby jumping when I laughed wasn't too unreasonable, but every time? you think he might have gotten used to it after awhile.

Now that he is older and I am around all the time, he laughs along with me whenever I laugh. no, now he jumps when he thinks no one was watching the stupid thing he was about to do, or is so focussed on it, he forgets I am there.

Yesterday he stared at a new crayon so hard as he contemplated it and brought it to his mouth, that when I said "No!", he jumped and almost shoved the crayon up his nose. Awesome.

Now one of his grandma's got him a Hallowe'en book. The book introduces all sorts of scary characters, with googly eyes that move! but the best is that last page. The little monster knows what happens once you turn the last page. He gets apprehensive as you flip closer to the back of the book, even though he has requested the book and wants to see it.

When you open the last page, this scary vampire laugh starts up and a bat in the corner has red LED eyes that flicker. So scary! and even though he knows it is about to happen, he jumps a mile in the air! I thought I was scaring him, but then I left him alone with book, and he flips directly to the back page all by himself and still jumps every time!

The kid is totally going to grow up to love roller coasters.

Resolved!

2009-10-26T09:47:00.002-04:00

Well, the application system seems to have finally spit out all of my information, so all is well with the application. phew!

I am a little suspicious that there actually was a problem, but at least my desperate emails to my referees resulted in my delinquent reference to say "Oh, right, sorry, I will get right on that!" so now everything has been received by the University and hopefully the department can access the last reference today.

Geez, usually it is me who does things at the last minute, nice to finally have a situation where it wasn't my fault!

Gradumacated!

2009-10-23T17:03:00.002-04:00

So, apparently, degrees were officially awarded on Wednesday, so, I am officially a Master of the Universe! ok, so just Master of Arts, but who cares about the rest of the universe right?

In other news, things are not going so well on the bid for further universe domination.

Applications that rely on computers suck!

The transcripts that I ordered and paid for as part of the online application haven't been sent yet, even though the order supposedly went through back in the middle of September.

I just found out today that the department I am applying to doesn't have the reference that my advisor completed back in September, a reference that turns up as completed on the thing I can check online. And the other reference which hasn't been completed yet might not have even been sent out yet because there has been some kind of computer glitch with the system.

Even though these problems are with their system, they will consider my application late if they don't get everything by the end of the month, which means I get put on the waiting list.

Bah!

That song

2009-10-21T21:15:00.002-04:00

When we were kids (and onward really), whenever we "didn't wanna", my dad and my brother would start up a chorus of :

"I don't wanna go to work today! (Where there's a whip =fsht* wrist flick= there's a way)"

Every time the song came up, we pondered where it had come from. We knew it was from a cartoon movie that we saw as kids, something with slaves and whips (and there are a surprising number of those), we thought The Secret of NIMH but I saw it again, and it wasn't that.

Then, the other day while we were painting my brother's bathroom, the song came up again (gee, can you guess why?) and I got to thinking, I wish there was some way to find out where the song came from..... oh wait! Its called the internet.

Here is what I got

We saw the Lord of the Rings cartoon movie once, and we didn't even see it all the way through because there was something wrong with the tape. Weird what things stick in your head. (Also weird how the orcs are much more sentient beings in the cartoon version). I have no recollection of the movie except that the VCR ate the tape.

Kinda disappointing to finally know where it comes from. We sing it slightly differently, and of course, I like our version better.

* I couldn't make the =fsht= noise of a whip flick when I was younger, so I used to say "voochee!" which of course quickly morphed into "bluecheese!" because every good whip says "bluecheese!"

Angels of Painting

2009-10-13T22:17:00.003-04:00

a mother and daughter

1 bathroom

9'x6'

10' high ceilings

nubbly textured wall and ceiling that all had to be primed and painted, and painted, and painted

8 hours of work

$650 worth of work for the price of a pizza and a parking ticket

1 lucky brother who's sister had a day off and was willing to help him out

2 women too tired to bother trying to get the paint off their hands before bed

Edit: While getting ready for bed I discovered that I not only have paint all over my hands, but have a large splotch near each elbow, where I must have leaned against the wall, paint on my feet and ankles, paint splotches on the front and back of my shirt, and the one on the front bled through to give me a splotch on my boob so i assume the ones on the back did the same thing. Of course, all the major splotches are primer paint, which requires paint thinner to get it off. yeah.

Thanksgiving Edition

2009-10-10T13:34:00.002-04:00

We have a lot to be thankful for, but a very full and busy weekend that might not let us fully appreciate it all, so i'ma make a list.

1. Even though we are all growing up and our family is expanding, I still get to see most of my extended family at some point this week.

2. My brother is coming home, even though he will have to wear a pestilence mask cause he be sicky.

3. My cousin and his son in Tennesee are recovering from their bout of H1N1 and double pneumonia.

4. My Pa has his job back, at least for a few months, and is super stoked about going to work every day.

5. My mom is settling in to her new house and making it her own. most of the boxes are unpacked.

6. I have a job that lets me cuddle one of my favorite little people every day, and a plan for the future that involves more school and infinite possibilities. And a week off next week!

7. This Thanksgiving will be even more special because the little person will be baptised tomorrow morning .

I'll end with my father's grace:

Lord, bless this food from your bounty,
Help us to be always mindful of the needs of others,
And look after those who cannot be with us tonight,
Amen.

Wedding on High

2009-10-07T08:52:00.002-04:00

The M&M wedding was wonderful. A beautiful September day. A few trees had started to turn already, making an awesome patchwork vista from the top of the ski hill, where the ceremony took place. Plus, it was so much fun to take the chair lift up the mountain in all our wedding finery and then back down again.

The best part was how happy my friend M was. Mom and I brought the bridal party lunch earlier in the day, and M's mom was stressed but still happy, but M was floating on a euphoric cloud. She hadn't been stressed at all about the planning of the wedding, and she was over the moon on her wedding day. I think one of her favorite parts of getting ready for the wedding were the pretty underwear that said "Bride" that her older sister had given her, which she had to show me while i was unpacking lunch.

It was really nice to see how much M&M love each other, and that they are honestly nice and laid back people. I mean, I knew my friend was, so it is nice to know that she found such a perfect match in a husband. They had time for everyone, and really tried to speak with every guest at some point during the afternoon and evening, so nice when everyone had traveled a long way to get to the wedding. I think it was the only wedding I have been to where everyone had to travel at least 2 hours in order to get there. The guests were almost half and half Canadian and American, fitting, since the couple are one of each. Funnily enough, we traveled less distance from Canada, than most of the Americans did! The only Canadian/American issue we ran into was that they don't sign the register during American weddings, so when the bride and groom started walking back down the aisle without signing, all of the Canadians started whispering "They didn't sign the register! Are they really married?" Guess what the number one question they had to answer in the receiving line was?

It was a great wedding, and I know they are going to have a wonderful future together.

Dream Sequence

2009-10-03T15:29:00.002-04:00

(For those who haven't met me, if you are reading this, I have very strange dreams on a frequent basis, and I generally tell everyone about them, because i am that type of a person. Plus, it makes long car trips and walks to school much more interesting, these are actual dreams i had last night, no exaggerations. If anything they are more wild and crazy in reality than in the re-telling)

Dream 1: Set in a subterranean subway station type place, but with a black roiling canal instead of the train lines. There is a thunder storm with heavy winds (yes, inside). A millitary General, in typical movie general form, is yelling at everyone on the platform. They have captured a man and are threatening to throw him into the canal. There are obviously evil black things living in the canal, and judging by all the roiling, they are upset and active. Every once in awhile a tentacle, or other limb burst through the surface of the water, only to be electrocuted by a current the millitary have run through the surface of the water to keep things contained. In mid-General-yell, a giant spider-like thing breaks through the water and wraps inself around the General to drag him back in. The electric current zaps the creature as they hit the water again, and it lets go of the General, leaving him to skitter across the charged surface of the water to the beach at the end of the platform. The captive and I see this as an opportunity and jump into the canal and skitter across the surface of the water, through electric shocks. We almost make it to the beach, when they turn off the electrical current, and we plunge into the infested waters and have to swim for our lives. End of Dream 1

Dream 2: On the set of a historical vampire movie, a dark, misty, moon-lit night. A vampire on horse-back carries his willing female victim in victorian underwear towards the New England ghost-town that is the home of all the vampires. The horse walks on a raised brick pathway through the woods that has developped a rivulet of water running down the middle. By the time the path meets with another, the paths are covered an inch deep in running water. When they reach the road, it has turned into a fast moving river. I think this is kind of weird and realize that the sets had been built weeks ago, and that the day of the shoot there had been torrential rains, but the weather had cleared off to provide the ideal conditions, so the director had decided to go ahead with the shoot anyway, and ascribe some sybolism to the flood as an after-thought. End of Dream 2

Dream 3: I am the only human in a room full of friendly (so far) sleeping vampires. We are in an old storefront full of flea market furniture. There are eight female vampires in one bed, five or six males in the next, and a dozen children in another bed at the foot of the other two. The sun is coming up and there are no curtains except some ripped roller blinds in the front of the shop. I run around trying to hang up old blankets to cover the windows, but there are too many windows and not enough blankets, and the room is full of mirrors that are reflecting the sunlight around the room. Some of the vampires sleepily wake up, look at the sun coming up, and roll over to go back to sleep, as if to say "meh". End of Dream 3.

Secret Weapon

2009-10-02T11:06:00.002-04:00

I have a secret weapon in my fight against the little monster.

I sing, and he stops being fractious and sits and listens. most of the time.

When we are out for a walk he gets tired of being in the stroller for too long, so I start singing anything that pops into my head, mostly English and French Canadian folksongs. There aren't many people out walking at 1pm, and I can see them coming a mile away, so I can sing to my heart's content (yes, i realize it is mostly for me, but I get on a roll).

So I was singing "Song for the Mira" at full voice, when a man suddenly appeared right in front of me. Oh my god! Did he hear me? Quick, say something to the baby so he knows I wasn't singing to myself! Where did he come from? Was I in tune? Why is he turning around? I want to pretend this didn't happen! Oh god, he smiled at me! He so totally heard me! Argh!

I kept on walking past where the man had appeared, and realized that he was installing a pool in someone's backyard, and they were using the trail that runs behind the houses to move in some equipment.

=le sigh=

If only my super powers extended to an invisibility cloak, or at least a sound bubble.

PS I totally started singing again a block later. I mean geez, I had to finish the song!

ewwwww!

2009-09-30T09:06:00.002-04:00

Is there anything worse than being puked on? really? can you tell the monster and i are not having such a good morning?

At least I only got the little pre-puke yak-up, and not the full deal. of course i still had to clean up the full deal. i am not sure how i made it through without puking myself, but i did.

I really hope that this was just a one-time deal and isn't going to turn into a full-blown puke-fest illness, cause i definitely won't be able to avoid that one, not with a baby who sticks his fingers in his mouth even more when we isn't feeling well. lovely.

now i have to figure out how to work the central vac so i can vacuum up the baking soda i tossed over the spot on the carpet.

Instant Track Star

2009-09-25T10:05:00.002-04:00

I have started a new job this week. It is fun, tiring, and gives me lots of time to surf the internet. Can you guess?

Probably not!

I am now a live-in nanny to my 1 year old second cousin. This is a temporary gig until I start MLIS in January. It works out perfectly, because I needed a short-term job, and my cousin only discovered she had to go back to work a few weeks beforehand, and so did not have enough time to work her way up the day-care waiting lists. They live in the next city over, so it is easier if I sleep here rather than try to beat the morning traffic to get here for 7:30 in my non-existant car. I have the whole walk-out basement to myself! I have a TV and a sewing machine in my bedroom and a walk-in closet! and a weird Hammacher Schlemmer alarm clock that wakes me up with a light and bird screeches every morning!

One of my friends from university also lives in this city, and has already invited me to join in her ladies night with her friends, so that will be something to look forward to next week. Plus she has a Wii, with Sports Resort, so I might just have to pop over there on occasion once I figure out the bus system here.

But the best part (or maybe the worst?...) is that my cousin and her husband are runners. That is actually how they met, at running group. So every Monday and Thursday night we all head out to the running store and meet up with the groups for a run. Her husband actually leads one of the groups, with the baby racing stroller and still makes it back first. My cousin is just getting back into running after having the baby, so she and I and a couple other ladies make our own group and run and walk at our own pace, which works out great for me, because I can keep up with them and not get lost in this new and totally confusing city.

On top of that, I take the baby out for a walk in the stroller every day, and there are a lot of hills in this neighbourhood! and a lot of trails, this subdivision was designed really well. it is so nice not to have to walk on concrete all the time, and to have access to little bits of nature, like ponds and creeks and forests.

Now I just have to find a compass and protractor set so I can make the templates for my dad's "Turtles in a Mudstorm" quilt, that will look something like this, but in browns and oranges, and I will have something fun to fill the nap-times.

The Morning After

2009-09-20T19:06:00.002-04:00

My friend's wedding was awesome! This is not a story about it.
This is a story about the B&B where we stayed while at the wedding.

We stayed in a garage that had been converted into a guest cabin at a b&b. The hot tub and pool were right on the other side of one wall.

We got back from the wedding at 11:30pm and got ready for bed. as soon as our lights were out and we wanted to go to sleep, we heard vigourous sloshing from the direction of the hot tub outside.

That is right, someone was having sex in the hot tub.

We broke out in a fit of giggles, rolled over, closed our ears as best as possible, and hoped for a quick finish. I believe it went on for about half an hour.

The next morning, we were a bit late for breakfast, and so had to sit at the big dining table with a young couple. The young couple were in town for an antique car show, and had obviously had a good night out at the bars the night before, the boyfriend asking for large glasses of ice water with his breakfast.
The boyfriend started to complain about his back hurting and how he must have fallen at some point the night before. His girlfriend said, "No dear, you didn't fall." and left it at that.

The conversation took some turns and my mom ended up saying that we had come back from the wedding at around midnight. The girlfriend sat up straight, her eyes went wide, and she turned and looked at her boyfriend. He was confused and continued eating. and then complained about his back again a few minutes later. and asked the girlfriend if she had brought any Aleve. and wondered again what he had done to his back. His girlfriend looked decidedly uncomfortable, and grabbed his leg to try and make him stop talking.

As soon as we got back into our cabin my mom and i said in unison, "Oh it was soooooo them!"

and the best part?

He didn't even remember!

Gifting

2009-09-15T17:45:00.002-04:00

One of my oldest friends, M, is getting married this weekend.

She is a friend from my neighbourhood that was never in the same school as me (except co-op preschool), but we liked alot of the same things, and so ended up in after-school activities together. Plus our mom's are friends, so it is hard not to keep in touch!

We were in dance classes together all through high-school, and even when I was sick and could barely move, M came by to pick me up for class anyway, no matter what, so I had to go and do what I could in class, even if I felt like hell.

But our main connection was, and still is, sewing. We were in sewing lessons for quite awhile, but only had lessons together for a few years. It is so much fun to have a friend who understands about sewing, and about making time for sewing, and who had the same teacher so has a similar take on sewing.

So of course, I am sewing her wedding present.

Except, I kindof forgot her wedding was so close. Like, on Saturday.

I bought the fabric today.

I realized it was so close at her shower last night, when we were laughing about how she is not nervous or stressed at all, and can't understand why her mother is. And then I realized her wedding was this weekend, and started getting stressed!

oh well, the project I am making should just take a day and a half, max, and I can get started tonight, so fingers crossed my sewing machine keeps working!

At least i have my dress and shoes for the wedding!

When it happens to you

2009-09-07T21:51:00.002-04:00

I have worked with census materials for more than six years. I have worked with every Canadain Census from 1891-1951. The latter years are still classified, so I have to have security clearance to look at them. That is because the Canadian Census has a 92 year release date, which means that only the years up to 1911 have been released to the public so far.

It may seem weird to think that we have such a long release date, but people lobbied to get such a short one, it used to be 100 years.

The long release date is so that people directly affected by secrets about their families held in the census are dead before their secrets are revealed.

But some of the other documents that people use for geneology do not have such long release dates, may in fact be available at any time, like birth, death and marriage certificates, and the secrets come out anyway.

I used to think that there wasn't really any secret held by the census that could be so bad, until my father started researching his family's geneology.

We discovered that my great-grandfather had been married twice. We haven't yet found any evidence that he was divorced from my great-grandmother before he married again though.

1901 Census has the whole family living on the farm out in the country.

1911 Census, the mother and a few of the younger children, including my grandfather, were living in town by themselves, with the mother working as a laundress to earn money for the family.

1912 Marriage Certificate has the father going by his middle name, but listing the right birthplace and dates and parent's names, marrying a different woman in a Northern mining town.

1914 Death certificate, the father has died in the Northern town. (My mother says "Second marriage was too much for him!")

Now, this information interests my father and I, because we didn't know much about that side of the family. It is actually kind of neat to find out that something so out of the ordinary happened in our family!

But if my grandfather were still alive he might feel very differently about these revelations. If he hadn't known about it, he might not like to discover that his father had abandoned them when he was six years old, only to get married again a few years later. If he had known about it, he might not like that his grandchildren knew about such a shameful part of our family's past.

I never really appreciated the necessity of the 92 year release date until it hit so close to home.

What is in a name

2009-09-02T20:19:00.002-04:00

i was out to lunch (ha ha) with some lovely women today, and one of them told a story that really got me thinking.

Her daughter's boyfriend had kept their road plowed all last winter. One day, one of the two other people who live on the road caught the boyfriend and asked him and his girlfriend to dinner to thank them for keeping the road plowed.

When he got home and told his girlfriend, she said "did you finally catch their names?" "oops! nope, we will have to try and figure it out at dinner, they have to call each other by name at some point!" They couldn't even look up the other people's phone number to let the people know they were in fact able to make it to dinner, the boyfriend had to wait until he saw the man again in his driveway.

They attended the dinner and came away none the wiser. At no point during the visit and meal did the other couple call each other by name, or introduce themselves.

The story got me thinking about how few times we actually introduce ourselves these days. I went through my entire undergraduate degree meeting new people and never knowing their names, because you don't generally introduce yourself when you laugh at someone else's silly comment in class, and then once you have been sitting together for the whole semester, it seems a little late to ask their name. Most of these people I never saw again after that class was over, and a few I have finally discovered their name through the miracle of facebook when they have been tagged in someone else's picture.

I also realized that if someone came into my family's house and tried to figure out our names from how we refer to each other, they might have difficulties. We only refer to people by their real names in dire circumstances.

Sometimes I long for those days when you couldn't talk with someone unless you had been "properly introduced". At least them you could ask other people for more information about them, and not have to ask "Do you have any idea who I have been making out with all evening? Cause I have had tons of classes with him but it seems a bit late to ask him his name now, " just to get a reply of "I don't really know his name, but he was in my physics class first semester....."

Wildlife count

2009-09-01T13:26:00.003-04:00

I am back up North and trying to stay warm. I think it is fall here already. We might have already had the last swim of the season.

But the coldness hasn't stopped the wildlife from coming out to say hello. I think they are happy that school is back in now and all the summer people are gone!

So on this trip I have seen:

Mr. Fox sunning himself on a rock, all gorgeous red fur and smug "this is my sun and my rock" expression.

Two HUGE wild turkeys! They are kind of weird looking, but regal, like skeksis wearing quail and pheasant feather cloaks.

A mama deer and two babies crossing the road and looking back at the cars like "whoa, where did they come from?"

We have also seen more moose prints on the bush paths around the house.

Add these to the two HUGE turtle sightings, a little turtle, and a redwing blackbird attacking a great blue heron, that makes for a pretty good summer!

Free and clear!

2009-08-26T18:02:00.002-04:00

Done!

I sent the hard copy of my thesis off to Victoria this morning.

That is it! I am done done done! Yippee! Huzzah! I am free!

and what did I do with this newfound freedom?.....

applied for a Masters in Library Science.

Basil's brush with death

2009-08-22T18:16:00.002-04:00

Basil the Bunny was attacked by a cat this afternoon.

We got complacent at our new house, with its enclosed backyard. We hadn't seen any cats roaming the neighbourhood, so we figured the only problem with leaving Baz in an outdoor cage for a few hours during the day was the weather.

Then mom stepped out onto the back deck and saw a cat chasing a streak of grey across the yard and through the gate across the driveway.

And then she saw that the side of Baz's cage had been ripped apart.

We ran out into the front yard screaming, "BASIL!", and couldn't see her or the cat anywhere.

Then I started to think, how the hell do you find a five pound animal that is terrified out of its wits, possibly hurt, and doesn't come when you call it? doesn't even make a noise to tell you it is there? probably doesn't even know how to get back home if it has run too far? that we don't even know if its still alive?

Then I saw the cat, huddled under a trailer next door, without a rabbit in its mouth.

At the same time, mom found Baz huddled against the curb across the street. No visible blood. We were quick enough in yelling that the cat backed off. either that or there had been a car, which I don't want to think about.

I cuddled her under my chin and her heart was beating again by the time I got her back inside, and she curled up on my shoulder under my chin for the next hour until her heart-rate slowed down again.

Two hours later she is completely fine, and is hopping around outside of her cage for the first time in the new house, feeling very brave now that the crisis is over, and she bested a cat.

Her mom is not quite so fine. Baz will not be going outside again very soon. Especially now that the cat knows where she lives.

Neighbours are awesome

2009-08-16T11:18:00.002-04:00

Our family lived in our old neighbourhood for over 30 years.

We made some very good friends in the neighbourhood.

Those friends helped us move.

You guys are awesome.

You helped pack a million dishes.

You helped clean our fridges and other places that haven't seen a duster in almost 30 years. ewwwwww.

You helped dig up plants to bring to the new house.

You took loads of crap to the thrift store, the dump, the humane society.

You took loads and loads and loads of boxes over to our new house.

You stashed our stuff in your houses because there were not enough hours in the day to move it all before we had to give over the keys.

You helped us christen the new house with laughter and good food.

Thank you so very very much.

Loot Bags

2009-08-09T12:43:00.002-04:00

We have come up with the perfect solution for our excess of stuff from the B&B: everyone who comes to visit the new house will receive a loot bag.

Each loot bag will contain:

-a Gideon's Bible
-a Brita Water Filter Pitcher
-a set of slightly used but clean towels
-a set of slightly used but clean sheets
-your choice of side chair or end table

I think that should slowly help us cut down on the clutter!

All moved in, no room for us

2009-08-07T09:41:00.002-04:00

We are all moved in and my mother has just christened our new kitchen floor with a broken bottle of green food colouring.

This is because there is currently no room in our kitchen to put a box down to unload it.

My mother had a interior designer friend of hers come and look at our new house before we moved in to see what furniture we should bring with us to the new house. She assured us that most of our major furniture items would fit, especially the family antiques. And i am sure that she is right, she just forgot about all the smaller furniture pieces, the ones that are currently completely filling our living room, and the fact that we have possessions, that are all currently in boxes taking up the rest of of the space in the house. And the garage.

Somehow we were able to convince ourselves that we could easily fit all of our stuff into a house exactly half the size of the old one, simply by getting rid of the extra beds and a couple of chairs.

Now the wishful, "someday we will have built-in bookshelves built along this wall" has turned into, "we are going to IKEA tomorrow and getting some bookshelves to screw together and create the look of built-ins."

Don't get me wrong, I love this new house and I think my parents will be really happy here, there just needs to be a serious purge of all the crap that they thought they could hang onto.

The green food colouring is a case in point. There isn't much of a mess because it was almost all dried up in the bottom of the bottle. The bottle broke, because it was old and glass. How old, you say? I would estimate it was from the 60s. It came out of my grandmother's house.

See how much we need to purge?

Moving In!

2009-07-31T13:58:00.002-04:00

We got the keys to the new house today!!!!!! Yay!!!!!

We have already moved two car-loads of boxes over, and concluded that we really need to leave to boxes of books for the movers, because that is what we are paying them for - to break their backs so we don't have to!

It is also already a pain to drive over there and back. It only takes 10 minutes or so, but because of two rivers and construction, there is no direct route, so you have to weave through "traffic calmed" side streets all the way over, and then wait for five lights before your trun to turn left. plus it is the hottest it has been all month today, and people are all trying to go away for the holiday weekend, so drivers are all peevy. bah!

but the boards for the garage walls were delivered early, and we managed to get the delivery guy to take the challenge of backing up down our driveway and dumping the boards right into the garage, an interesting feat, and he was pretty chuffed with himself once he had successfully completed the task. now the workers are busy putting up the vapour barrier and boards so that we have a finished garage for the movers to put the extra furniture in on Wednesday.

Its all coming together so nicely! Mom is worried now, because the house looks so much smaller without furniture, but i reassured her that the previous owners had just as much furniture as we plan to put in, and it did not look crowded. I know she will not believe me until we get all of our stuff in.

So happy! My parents will be officially retired by Sunday afternoon!