Good News

Sure, I don't have a phone or a bed yet but I did find out today that I do get a vacation in the summer! They shut down the bustling (um, no) Wellington Times from July 28th to August 8th. It seems a bit wierd, but I think it means a trip to Alberta is in order. Bring on the beef.

Out of Touch

I've been living in a different world lately. I've partly moved, but I have no phone, TV and no internet at home (so I'm doing this at work shhh). My cell service is awful. I'm going a little batty and I think if I don't have a phone by tonight I'm personally going to kill Bell Canada. I had a mental break yesterday, without a phone or anything then I went to flop in self pity of my bed. I don't have a bed, I have a floor and it's not the same.
I'm hoping to be back in touch soon, or I might just go even more nuts.

Poor Peter MacKay

Yesterday Peter MacKay, deputy leader of the Conservative party, was laying low after the defection of Belinda Stronach. Today, MacKay broke his silence and expressed his 'heartbreak' about the situation. He was with Stronach before she met with Prime Minister Paul Martin and he also saw her afterwards, and MacKay says he never say her switch coming. In his interviews he does look visibly upset, but he doesn't say what hurt more - Stronach leaving the party or leaving him. An educated guess would be that the personal side is affecting him more than the political. MacKay's inner politician would react professionally, he would express anger and resentment but never hurt. I can't help but feel bad for the guy.

Politicians will be politicians...

There is a great big but at the end of this. I understand that when a politician switches sides people will be angry and names will be called. As I watch the endless news coverage of Belinda Stronach becoming a liberal (see below) I expect all the normal bitterness. This isn't the first time a politican crossed the floor but this is the first time that I remember hearing a politician called a whore. I apologize if my details are a bit fuzzy but as I watched the National this evening someone called Stronach a political (he used a different word I don't remember)whore, and someone else called her a dipstick, an attractive one but still a dipstick. I don't think these same remarks were uttered when Scott Brison crossed the floor over a year ago. Brison received criticism but he was not called a whore or a dipstick. I'm not going to get into an it happened because she's a woman argument, but what happened to common decency in any aspect of life. Is Stronach ambitious - yes - power hungry - probably - but do either of these things make her any kind of whore? No.

Gomery free politics

A political junkie I am not. I started following politics a little more closely last year, because I had to and I've started ignoring them a bit again because I'm on Gomery overload. My interest was sparked again when right before lunch, Romina told me Belinda Stronach became a Liberal. All I could think was, what? Stronach orchestrated the joining of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservatives, and orchestrated her way into deputy leader Peter MacKay's bed. Even after she lost her leadership bid, Stronach seemed to still be the face of hope for anyone looking for a trace of any progressive leanings in the Conservative party. And she added an element of youth and a splash of much needed excitement. Stronach had guts (or in the minds of some, gall) to stand up against her party on same-sex marriage and even the upcoming attempt to bring down the Liberal government.
Political analysts have been saying that these are signs of Stronach never quite fitting in with the Conservatives. In her statement she says that she had felt uncomfortable in the party for some time. Stephen Harper said he wasn't surprised especially after he basically told Stronach that she would never be leader of the Conservatives. I've never been a fan of Harper, and this again shows me why. He obviously doesn't want dissent in the party, and he definitely doesn't want any traces of left-leaning politics.
I never thought Stronach should have won her first leadership bid, but I thought she was good for the Conservative party. Whether or not she will become the next leader of the Liberal party is yet to be seen. There are far more people waiting in the wings to take over the Liberals than the Conservatives. Mind you, within the Liberals she won't half to deal with the extreme right-wing Conservatives who disagree with many of her politics. I think Stronach will remain high profile for a while but will eventually become buried under all of the other attention grabbing Liberals, like Anne Mclellan. Had Stronach statyed with the Conservatives she might not have become leader, (though that may have happened too) she would have at least kept her spotilight longer.
There is of course the sordid twist to this whole issue, her relationship with MacKay. The two have been a couple for a few months now, and Stronach allegedly broke the news of her defection to MacKay and not Harper. Did she dump him too? If that phone call ended both Stronach's relationship with the Conservatives and MacKay, what a shitty phone call. Belinda: "Hi honey, how was your day? Mine?Great. I've decided to cross the floor and take a cabinet position with the Liberals. I'm sure this effectively ends our romantic involvement too, well it's been fun. Oh, gotta run, Bill Clinton's on the other line."

Ontar-ee-air-ee-air-ee-oh

I had to surrender a piece of my identity today. I gave away my Alberta driver's license today. Technically I didn't give it, they took it and $75 bucks. For all of that I got a piece of paper that will eventually replaced by a shiny (I hope it's shiny) Ontario driver's license. I'm really going to miss the strange looks from anyone who tries to figure out my Alberta license, but I'm not going to miss my awful picture. I may have changed my license but I'm still an Alberta girl, they just took away my proof.

Deja View

Ten minutes into the movie Closer I realized I'd seen it before. Years ago I saw Patrick Marber's play at Theatre Junction in Calgary, and I completely forgot. This isn't normal for me, I don't go to the theatre half as much as I'd like to, so I thought remembered nearly every show I've ever seen. During the opening moments of the movie I thought it was oddly familiar, but the scene that made me say "I've seen this before," was when Dan and Larry are unknowingly having cyber-sex. When I saw it in the theatre I remember thinking, this is twisted and funny. I had the exact same thought while watching the movie.
This was one of the few occations where I had a very similar reaction to a movie as I did to the play. As soon as I remembered seeing the play I started to remember what I thought of it. I remember thinking that the play was interesting, and I liked how the play wasn't about sex or relationships, but more about how sex affects a relationship. I also remember that the only character with any redeeming qualities was Alyce, the stripper. She was the only character I was interested in. At the end of the movie I thought the same thing. Anna and Dan were boring and mellodramatic and Larry was a pervert, but Alyce was fragile and had very human.
Normally if I see an adaptation of a book or play that has been turned into a movie I find the movie lacking something. This experience was slightly different, I actually thought the movie did the play justice. The most unsettling thing about the movie is that it was a lot harder to follow than the play. On stage when the simple sets were moved around it wasn't difficult to tell that the characters were in a different time and place. Also, having the story take place on a full set took away some of the intimacy. The story follows some very intimate moments in the lives of these characters and I prefered being in the same room with them.
Regardless of what I thought of the play or the movie I still find it strange that I forgot I'd already seen it. It made it hard to immerse myself in the movie as my memory of seeing the stage version came rushing back. Now that the movie is over I remember where I saw it, and why. I reviewed Theatre Junction's version for a criticism class I was taking, and I had the opportunity to argue my opinion with the professor who had also seen the play and we disagreed on everything. That was fun.

Growing up = pain in the ass

Any witty sociaal commentary I was hoping to make with this blog seems to have been thrown out the window this week. When I read the daily papers not much jumps out and catches my attention because my head is swirling. Although I did notice that Leah McLaren's column jumped right back into a pile of crap. Some of her recent columns haven't been as stupid but I don't actually think today's made zero sense.
So my head is swirling. I recently accepted a job, which should be a very happy moment and I should be dancing on the ceiling but I'm not. I'll be working at the Wellington Times, a weekly in a rural area near Belleville. Now I have no move and re-organize my life in far too short a period of time and nothing seems to be going my way. I went out there to try to find a place to live and that didn't go well. I saw an apartment and I like it but the landlord is making me jump through several hoops to approve me, not unexpected but a pain because of course I can't get any of the paper work he wants until Monday. On top of this I need to acquire a vehicle. All of the this makes dollar signs dance through my head. So I've had to swallow some pride and accept some help from my parents, which I hate.
So all the craziness that goes hand in hand with moving anytime is tripled because it's on short notice and in another town. And I've had to swallow a lot of pride to accept help from my folks, so if you see me and I look frazzled, frustratetd and on the verge of tears, I apologize but that the way it is right now.
I have to laugh at myself a little because this growing up process has has an interesting affect on me. Last week I was frustrated and crying because I had no job and thought I was going nowhere. This week have a job and still I'm frustrated and crying because it seems like there's too much to do. I've never cried/wanted to cry so much in my life. I think I should invest in a mood stablizer!
This is life. And in the words of someone I once knew, I have to suck it up princess and get on with it.

About last night...

Don't get your hopes up, this isn't a sordid tale.
There are few things I enjoy more than wine and good food. This being said, I never reeally understood the wine and food pairing thing until last night. Normally I just drink whatever wine is around with whatever food I have around, basically that means I drink red wine with just about everything.
Last night, Pete and I went to the Fetzer Appetizer Challenge, local chefs had to make appetizers that would match Fetzer's Gewurztraminer. I don't enjoy Gewurztraminer, it's very sweet and fruity and from the tasting menu it apparently matches well with seafood. I'm not a seafood lover either. So I'm wandering around with my least favourite wine and eating seafood and something shocking happens. Pete and I are directed to one station where the dish is salmon prepared three ways. Salmon is my all time least favourite food, but I sure did enjoy the salmon with the Gewurztraminer. I'm not even sure what it was but I really noticed how the taste of the food and the wine changed the flavour. This event had me enjoying both salmon and Gewurtraminer, my mom would be shocked.
I've always wanted to be a food critic, you get to eat fancy expensive food and judge it. That's what last night was like, good times...

Musical Dilemma

I broke my portable CD player a while ago. I dropped it one day while at the gym and I haven't bothered to get it fixed, but now I miss it. The reason I never got it fixed is that well I figure for what I would spend to get it fixed I could probably get a new one. That's where the dilemma comes in. If I was going to bother buying a new discman why wouldn't I just buy an MP3 player of some kind. But I'm too lazy to constantly be uploading songs so I'd want an MP3 player with loads of room, which is way more expensive than a new discman - especially if I get an ipod. Since I'm unemployed, I probably should either continue without any portable music device or fix/buy a new discman because I don't have $400. Damnit.

I have a dream...

I have a dream, but I need to win the lottery first. I'd love to say that if I won the lottery I would give all the money to charity, or send my parents on a trip. Sure, those things would be nice but the only money related fanatsy I've ever had is to walk into a record store and buy whatever I want. I literally had to run in and out of HMV today and buy the new Weezer and leave without getting a chance to look around. Why? Because if I wander around a record store I will want to buy things, and will often find a way to rationalize buying CDs.
How much fun would my dream be. I used to picture it as one of those game shows where you ran around the store and grabbed as much as you could in a limited time. Either way, both would allow me to accomplish the silly goal I have of having a wall of CDs in my house. Thousands of CDs, all organized by genre and then alphabetized. If I had that many CDs maybe people would stop making fun of me for having them alphabetized!
It's so silly, but wouldn't it be fun?

Congratulations

I just want to say CONGRATULATIONS to my very best friend Sunita, who finally got accepted to medical school today. She is now officially on her way to saving the world!

WTF

Reading the Toronto Star today I found an intersting story buried on A18. Queens Park has passed legislation to ban smoking in DAYCARES! Why hadn't that happened already? I find this shocking for two reasons, first because this legislation was initially voted down. What the Fuck? Did the government think that it would be a good idea to allow people to smoke in a place where children are? This seemingly logical legislation won't be fully imposed until May 31, 2006. The other reason I find this so unbelievable is that the Ontario government banned smoking in BARS first. Bars, a place where grown-ups are. How on earth did any politician or anti-smoking lobbyist of any kind think in the list of smoke-free priorities bars and restaurants were placed above daycare? Did the politicians think, like I did, that daycares were already supposed to be smoke free? Or were they not thinking at all? For me, having smoking in a day care is the same thing is having smoking in an elementary school. It's just plain stupid. I might be ranting a bit here but really, people had a choice whether or not to go to a bar where there was smoking. Children are put into daycare and they don't have a choice whether or not the person caring for them is smoking. Haven't governments been spending years trying to stop cigarette companies to stop marketing to children? Why then, haven't they been making it illegal for daycare workers to smoke in daycares? All educated people know that children learn by example and if we don't want to create future smokers or have children with lung problems due to second hand smoke this legislation should have happened years ago. I would love to find the idiot in government who said "let's get smoke out of bars and then we'll look at daycares," so I can kick him/her in the head. (This rant courtesy of a smoker)

The Beatles, Useful in everyday life...
After I finished being filled with rage over the above topic I had a pleasant discovery. Vinay Menon's TV column was written to the tune of I am the Walrus. It's a TV column so nothing ground breaking but it was pretty much exactly to the tune. It's effect was probably lost on anyone not familiar with I am the Walrus but for me, it was a grand ol' time. The only problem is that now I want to listen to I am the Walrus and my copy of Sgt. Pepper is on vinyl at my mom's house - Damnit!

Random Topic

Pete gave me permission to be entirely self-indulgent, as long as it keeps me writing. He even gave me a topic to start with. Pete is wearing a yellow shirt today, that is my topic. I'm familiar with Pete's yellow shirt, it's one of the items of clothing that Pete worries he's not hip enough to wear. He also has a striped shirt that is very cool and Pete should wear it more often. Yellow isn't a colour I would necessarily have ever expected to see in a men's dress shirt, but it works or maybe Pete is so hip that he can pull it off. Men's clothes have become much more interesting, my Dad only wore white dress shirts and now he has a few other colours, but white dominates. My brother, who is pretty boring, was very happy with a maroon and navy striped shirt I bought him for Christmas. Remember when the only time you saw a guy in a collared shirt was at a wedding/funeral/or something fancy? I now regularly see my guy friends in nice shirts on a regular day, sometimes on weekends. This is much preferred to teenage boy fashion, which should really just be banned outright. Now that the dress shirts memo has been passed around we need more guys to understand that they are allowed more than two pairs of shoes.

I should never be allowed to dispense fashion advice, I wear black 85% of the time.

Paper, Part Two

I found even more random shit in one of my piles of paper today. Underneath all the files of important paper I discovered a stack of notebooks. I forgot that I had brought any of them with me. In these notebooks were some old scribblings, and a short story that I wrote in high school. I was mildly impressed by it and surprised at what I was writing about. I wrote a "fictional" story, but really it was basically a compilation of moments in my life. It was quite personal and I can't believe that I handed it in to a teacher.
One notebook that I recognized contains bits and pieces of a story that I spent at least two years attempting to write. This notebook has character outlines and back story and scenes. I remember trying to write this story, I would work for hours on this story. I'd sit in my room and write it in that blue notebook or I'd type new pieces into the computer. Reading it again after years it's not awful but it makes no sense, it's a bunch of ideas that I managed to stretch into a story. Oh and I never finished this story that was supposed to be something significant, I think I just gave up.
Oh the wierd things I keep around.
These discoveries reminded me of when I used to write almost constantly. When I wasn't paying attention in class, I was writing something. If I was sitting in my room late a night, I was writing. I find myself writing less and less, maybe it's because I'm not as depressed as I was back then, or that now writing is apparently work. I'm hoping that this silly blog will help me remember that I enjoy writing. So bear with me when I'm self indulgent, like in this post.

Asia Orange

Not very many of my friends live anywhere too exciting. They're mostly spilt between Calgary and Toronto, except for a Shannon in St. John's and Blake in the Fort. But my one international friend, Paul, lives somewhere really cool - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He's been there almost 4 years and has recently been tempting me with the possibility of work there. I had been using it as a joke when my parents ask what I'll do if things don't work out and I would say I'm moving to Kuala Lumpur. As prospects get leaner and leaner I've started to think more seriously about it. It's really far away, and would be a huge change so I really have to put a lot of thought into it and not rush. I'm just impatient. Any thoughts?

Yesterday, I saw a man dressed head to toe in pumpkin orange. He had an orange hat, orange leather coat, orange pants and I'm pretty sure the shoes were orange too. I didn't know they made that much orange!

Extreme Niche Marketing

As the trailer for National Treasure on DVD came on for the hundredth time, I had a thought. Are studios so desperate that not only will they rip off a classic like Indiana Jones but they're also marketing to a fairly narrow audience. Really, think the movie is for action-movie-loving conspiracy theorists. And how many of them are there?
My parents saw it and said it was somewhat entertaining, which means I will never see it.

Eavesdropping

Today I participated in three of my favourite activities; reading the paper, drinking coffee and listening to other people's conversations.
These two girls were sitting beside me and discussing how the brunette's boyfriend had surprised her with a road trip to Montreal and Quebec City. This girl was not at all focused on this nice gesture her boyfriend made, and she didn't even find any romance in it. Aren't girls supposed to want romance? She was more concerned about how she would possibly spend a week straight with her boyfriend. She actually listed off people she would rather spend a week in Montreal with! And she didn't like having the trip sprung on her either. Apparently, she has better things to do than go away for a week. Girls like this drive me nuts. These are the ones who bitch and whine when they don't have a boyfriend, and then as soon as they get one they start by talking about how great he is and they try to set up all their single (and of course lonely and pathetic) girlfriends. Not long after this all these girls do is bitch about everything her boyfriend does but will not break up with him.
The funniest thing about this conversation - for a cynic like me - was when her friend (the blonde) suggested that one thing they could do on their trip is break up. The brunette went on to explain to the blonde that she could break up with him now because he has her TV and espresso machine and she doesn't have the room for them right now. Ah yes, the age old reason for staying in a relationship - he has my stuff. I was tempted to tell her I'd gladly take the espresso machine off her hands, even though I don't have the room. Her boyfriend also sounds nice, I could probably make better use of him than her, and I would gladly go to Montreal!
Isn't eavesdropping fun?!

Paper Purge

It's oddly soothing to go through the stacks of paper that have grown on my bookshelf over the year. It's a different calm than I get after I've finally cleaned my apartment. You know the feeling you get when you've been eating nothing but grease and then finally you go to the gym and eat a salad, it's like that. I think I just enjoy getting to the point of throwing stuff away and laughing at myself for keeping that piece of looseleaf with the one note I took during class when I was awake.
All during the school year I start stacks of paper, that don't really have a place and because I don't have desk drawers to stash them in the stacks just get higher and wider. These stacks of paper sit and collect dust until that I'll deal with those later moment finally arrives. Obviously, I have a tendency to keep everything. When I'm in school I feel like I should keep everything I write down or am handed by a prof, because I might need it. The problem is, if a paper ends up in one of these stacks I may never find it again. All of those papers get thrown out. I also keep stupid paper, why on earth would I keep the readings package from my magazine class last year? A key to the annual paper purge is to throw away all the stuff I kept from last year for the stupid reason of I might need it next year, which I never do.
The paper purge also forces some re-organization of the paper I've decided to keep. During the ongoing job hunt my portfolio fell out of order, literally. I would prefer it to stay in it's nice chronological order with each story in it's happy plastic cover, but that doesn't happen. So finally, I have a big black binder full of my life's work that is getting me nowhere. At least it's organized again.
Tomorrow, maybe I'll go through my folder full of old phone bills. It's nowhere near as exciting.

Spare time? Make sauce

This unemployment thing sucks. I've never been very good at going for too long without something to do. I'm trying to find something to do every day so that I have a reason to get out of bed and get dressed. This morning I had a short to do list, and I finished before noon.
Now what? After a brief workout and eating lunch I decided to keep busy by making sauce. I've discovered that really good tomato sauce takes nearly two days of simmering and sitting. Making sauce is a bit time consuming but it's the kind of project I can walk away from. Once garlic and onions are cooked I can walk away from it. I'll stir sauce for a while and can do something else. That is, if I had something else to do.
This was a good project for today, what should I make tomorrow?

Cheap and Entertaining

If you've never seen what WalMart or No Frills look like on a Sunday please check it out. It's insane! It's been a while since I'd even been in a WalMart, they're not hip enough for downtown Toronto, and I thought I was going to be run over by a shopping cart before I could buy a $19 hair dryer. I love WalMart, a whole bunch of crap scattered with good deals and there is always an opportunity to make fun of stuff. Pete, Kara and I found all the makings of a P. Diddy video including the huge brandy snifters and furry pillows and I'm sure there were platform shoes somewhere. There are few things funnier than the discount dvd bin. Crappy movies that are so cheap you dig through them for a hidden gem or two. Aside from the few good movies all the rest seem to fall into the category of 'worst movie ever,' I was just disappointed not to find Joe Versus the Volcano because that really is the worst movie ever.
No Frills is always crazy and it's even worse on a Sunday. I always enjoy watching people walking out with carts full of eight 2L cartons of juice -c'mon who needs that much juice? - and flats of everything imaginable. I love all the semi-identifiable foods in huge quanities and trying to decide between saving 10 cents for no name or splurge and buy brand name products. Even if the price is the same everything feels cheaper so then I buy stuff I don't need unless I exercise extreme self control. Today I had to walk away from the salami and spent five minutes deciding whether or not to buy ice cream. Instead I re-stocked my freezer with peanut butter cups and frozen pizza.