Questions

I ask questions for a living, but there are definitely days where I feel like I answer questions for a living.
My least favourite question has always been 'So, where are you from?' I try to come up with a short answer, but it inevitably leads to me telling the whole story. Living in rural area where everyone knows everyone, they seem to be fascinated by me as a new person. It always starts with, 'So, are you from here,' I kinda laugh and say no. Sometimes I mention that I moved here from Toronto, which I did. Sometimes I say I'm from Alberta, which I am. The Alberta answer sometimes shuts them up, but normally it leads to 'how on earth did you end up here?' then I have to tell the Toronto part. Sometimes I try to give the abridged version of 'born in B.C., raised in Alberta, spent a couple years in Toronto and now I'm here,' that normally suffices but gets strange looks. I'm sure I'll be explaining where I'm from forever, and it will always drive me crazy.
The latest annoying question is, 'So, are you going back to school, just here for the summer?' No. Then I have to answer questions about the County and how I like it, and how long I'll be here and try to be as polite as I can without saying, I'm here until something better comes along.
These are the questions from strangers that I find annoying. The question I have is why is it, that people I know fairly well repeatedly ask me about boys. Haven't people figured out that if there was a boy, I'd tell you?

Jeans

I love jeans. I despise jeans shopping, and my hatred seems to increase every time I step into a store to buy jeans. I cry when I slide my visa card to pay for the suckers, and I set a limit on them, but that's not even the major reason I hate jeans shopping.
Jeans manufacturers have conspired against me, and other women built like me. I'm short for one thing, and I'm especially short in the legs. I'm also curvy, but by no means large. They seem to only make jeans in a 34' length, which is nearly 3/4 of my height. So, I get them hemmed, which costs me more. I was informed by a sales person that many of the jeans companies don't make jeans over a 32' width. Huh? 32' isn't big at all, and even if it were, why should it matter? It's apparently too much to ask to try and find a pair of 33/30 jeans. I also enjoyed how the sales girl tried to sell me an accessory before I had even found the right pair of jeans. Stupid.
Sure there are more important things in the world, but there are few things better than finding the perfect pair of jeans.

AWOL

I'm going AWOL this weekend. I'm off for an overdue weekend in Toronto. I'm hoping to catch up with the gang, do some shoppin', eat some city food and maybe, just maybe, have a drink or two (three?). All I know is that everything will be a lot more interesting than they are out here.

Worst Idea Ever

I know there have been many signs that reality TV has gone too far but I think this really might be the sign. Skating With Celebrities is an obvious take on Dancing with the Stars, but colder and much dumber.
Sure learning how to ballroom dance would be hard. But if you're over the age of like 12 I would think it's almost impossible to learn how to do pairs figure skating!! If you've never watched or tried pairs figure skating, let me remind you that it involves holding/being held over someone's head, being thrown/throwing someone across the ice, being spun in circles, all while moving very quickly on very sharp skates with toe picks. The whole thing could be, literally, a bloody mess.
I give Dave Coulier the best shot and only because he's Canadian -- I bet that's who Nancy Kerrigan picked as her partner. With a close second to Debbie Gibson if she's paired with Kurt Browning. One question though, who would want Todd Bridges to hold them over their head?
Don't worry I promise not to watch the show.

Brief questions

Why haven't I seen the headline 'Radler the Tattler' yet?

Kate Moss got fired from one contract and lost two others for admitting to doing cocaine. She's a model, I thought that's what they do?

The morning show hosts of the Edge claim they don't find Kate Moss attractive and wouldn't sleep with her. Who believes them?

Pathetic

Reason my job is pathetic:
Two stories I'm writing this week: 1) A profile of the national arm wrestling champion, who genuinely thinks arm wrestling will be an Olympic sport one day. 2) There is a non-competitive women's hockey league in Picton hoping to add a second night in Wellington. 3) Something I've written this week will undoubtedly be bumped by a verbose letter to the editor that makes no sense and may be completely unrelated to any of the newspaper's content.

Reason why I'm pathetic:
I have two new friends, Ben and Jerry. They put brownies in chocolate ice cream -- god bless 'em.

The cop-out

Paul McCartney released a new album, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard and is has received some fairly positive reviews, just not from AP's Scott Bauer. (published in Macleans) "While it has much more edge that most of the McCartney's usual lighthearted pap, it doesn't dive into the darker recesses explored by his former bandmate John Lennon." Whenever a legend releases new material it is inevitablely compared to the works that made him great, but this line is a cop-out in a review. I hate cop-outs, I hate it when a movie/book ends with 'it was all a dream' or 'we are all dead.' So I hate it when critics use a cop-out like above.
If Bauer had to use a Lennon vs. McCartney comparison he could've waited at least a couple of lines. I could never pick a favourite between them, because they are so different. Both are/were amazing artists, but did very different things. McCartney was never as politically charged as Lennon, and never will be. So of all the comparisons that can be made I don't see why that would be the one Bauer chose to use. McCartney writes lightheared material, but I think 'pap' is probably an overstatement.
Bauer ends his review with a somewhat positive remark, but it reads like the kind of thing written about someone's sophmore album. "But as he approaches 64, Chaos and Creation gives McCartney fans another reason to still need him. Fans can only hope it's the sign of even better things to come."
The whole review made me angry, and not because it was a lukewarm response to the album, it's poorly written and full of cliches. Lennon's been dead for nearly 25 years and this guy needs to bring up the 'Lennon was better' argument, maybe Lennon would've burnt out or started only recording Yoko's screeches.
(Rant over)

Wierd Marriage Theory

This isn't my wierd marriage theory, but the theory of a colleague of mine (and not one of the crazy ones).
She says that women get married in order to find the true love of their life, their children. Aww, isn't that sweet, she says that is true unconditional love. Aww - puke on my shoes. I find this theory, as sweet and heartfelt as it may be, to be a step above the whole 'sex only for procreation' theory, it's just marriage for procreation. She made a brief mention of companionship, but then said she prefers the companionship of her friends. Huh? Maybe she should have gone to a sperm bank.
Maybe this is all completely foreign to me because marriage is the last thing on my mind (except for all the weddings I have to go to) and children are even further down on my list. I understand that children provide unconditional love -- although it doesn't seem that way when their 15 right mom? -- but I really don't like the idea of marrying someone just to have children. Why not just find some guy who you think has a lot of great qualities and have a couple babies and skip the whole marriage part, maybe you'll be happier.
I always thought that having a baby because it will love you unconditionally was one of the worst reasons to have kids. I also don't like the thought of getting married, having kids and then having a husband that you don't really want to be around, then you end up being one of those couples who 'stayed together for the kids' and get divorced after like 25 years of marriage or something. Or you end up with kids that you love to pieces and some guy who hangs around expecting you to make dinner and do the laundry, while he works 65 hours a week. Married people make no sense.
What do I know, I'm a selfish and single cynical bitch. (should I have hyphenated that?)

I hate writing cover letters

I will gladly write anything but cover letters. I thought that after spending a few years writing cover letters I'd get the hang of it, but no, I still hate it. I don't know if it's the monotony of them, or trying to figure out how to tailor each one for a specific job or what, but I hate them. It's also frustrating because I know that they are very important, especially as a writer. Every time I sit down to write one I have no idea where to start or what to say and when to say it. I hate them, I wish I had a job I liked so I could take a nice long break from writing them.

On that note, I found what is almost my dream job - and I'm qualified to do it. The catch is that it's in Winnipeg, and I'm worried that it sounds too good to be true. It's either a crappy job, or a great job for crappy money, or a job that just sounds cool but really sucks and pays like crap. Wish me luck.

U.S. Open

I've said it before that I love tennis, but I really do. This weekend's finals weren't entirely unexpected but it was still pretty exciting.
Kim Clijsters finally won a Grand Slam title, beating Mary Pierce in straight sets. Pierce has had a great season, even though she has lost in two Slam finals she at least made two. Pierce seems to choke in finals and look almost like she doesn't belong. In the French Open final, she barely showed up. She played slightly better in the U.S. open final, but not a heck of a lot. No matter how well she played, Clijsters would have cleaned up anyway. Clijsters is so fast and has played so well this year that there was no stopping her after she got through Venus and Maria.
On the men's side, Roger Federer won. Of course he did. It was a pretty exciting match regardless, because for a while there it looked like Andre Agassi had enough fight left in him to win. Federer was pretty sloppy for Federer, but picked it up at the end. Agassi was playing at the top of his game -- running all over the court, making every shot in the book and pulling out some big serves. Some CBC manager said that Agassi was playing the last set like a punch-drunk boxer, that person obviously did not watch the match. Agassi lost some steam towards the end, but didn't give up. Watching last night's match it was clear why Agassi has been around as long as he has, he's still good and parts of his game have gotten better. Early in the match Agassi's years of experience were visible, he had a huge bag of plays to pull from and he used all of them, twice and he did come close, just not close enough. Agassi's amazing, unfortunately he's no Federer.
It's times like these I wonder if there's anyone out there who'll pay me to watch and write about tennis... Anybody?

Am I that naive??

There was report on Global National tonight about teens and the use of ecstasy, I'm aware that this drug is ridiculously popular there was one statement made that threw me for a loop. Someone referred to ecstasy as the next step up from pot.
As someone who doesn't do drugs (no, really mom, I don't- I have references), I've always been a bit naive to the whole drug scene but I remember the days when mushrooms were after pot. People used to try 'natural' substances before moving into chemicals.
Anyways, teenagers these days apparently think ecstasy is no big deal. That's great, next they'll start thinking that cocaine is a 'recreational drug' again.
People are stupid, especially teenagers.

Just what every CFL fan is looking for

The Black Eyed Peas for the half-time show. Is it just me, or are CFL fans not the most likely fans of a hip-hop grop from California? Do the Black Eyed Peas know what the CFL is?

Small town frustration

I've mostly adjusted to living in a small town, but there are a few things that frutstrate me now and again, normally that's when I'm looking for something specific.

Right now, I'm looking for a map. You'd think it wouldn't be difficult to find a road map for a major city that's not too far away. Yeah, you'd be wrong. I'm driving to Ottawa on Friday and since I have a tendency to get lost I figured I should get a map of Ottawa, this is proving difficult. I asked my colleauges where I'd be able to find one. The answer, Belleville. Why on earth should I have to drive to Belleville, to the CAA office, for a map of our nations capital, which is three hours away? It's a road map! do people here travel so little that they don't carry maps anywhere in Prince Edward County? There should be a sign that when you enter PEC it says "we don't carry any maps for other cities, sorry."

The tourist office only had a tourist map, which would get me far more lost than I could get on my own, because they are often not to scale and have a tendency to omit streets.
So I asked my colleagues if the bookstore would carry maps -- they didn't seem to confident. Not that I'm surprised, this is the bookstore that doesn't carry Rolling Stone or Spin, and seems to not carry all that many books either.

This is a place that claims to want to be able to do everything itself, and not have to send people to Belleville or Trenton for things. I can think of many things you can't buy here. Magazines, this mythical bookstore carries a few intelligent magazines but it has crappy hours but seems to be stocked largely with fishing and crafting magazines - great. CDs, this bookstore is also the CD store, it has a very limited stock and is incredibly over priced, there is a used CD store as well, but I think I have more CDs than it does. Ethnic food - there is a severe lack of ethnic food that is prepared or available to be prepared, if you want burgers, grease or ice cream you're ok, ethnic food, you're not. Shoes, seriously I've never seen so many ugly shoes since I moved here. Clothes, read shoes. Office supplies, I'm out of printer paper and am thinking about stealing some from the office so I have some at home because they don't sell it here. Maps, see above.

I think you get the idea. I realize these are all luxuries and not the necessities of every day life, but these are things I've grown accustomed to while living in the city, which apparently spoiled me to a life of easy-access everything.

One final point, even if these things were available here they defintely wouldn't be open after 5 p.m., or maybe 6 p.m., which is an added challenge, it's hard to accomplish much when everything closes between 5 and 6 and that's when I get back from work, yet some there are strange things open at 8:30 a.m. like the bikini store. Why would I buy a bathing suit at 8:30 in the morning? This town is seriously warped on the retail front.

I love tennis

I've had a tennis-tastic weekend. If you think I've spent a lot of time on the court working on my backhand then you don't know me very well. When I wasn't at work I was sitting in my blue chair with a bag of mini rice cakes in one hand and cookies in the other watching the U.S. Open.
The thing I love about tennis is it's so unexpected. The early rounds are a little bit easier to guess, but even then, there are surprises. Andy Roddick out in the first round, Huh? Phenom Rafael Nadal taken out in the third round by James Blake, who a year ago was in the hospital and didn't think he'd hit another ball, Huh? Only in tennis. I love not being able to predict a match, or when it takes a sudden turn. Andre Agassi was up two sets and nearly had the third, but temporary lost his game but game back to kick ass in the fifth set, oh-yeah and Agassi's 35.
Tennis has a reputation for being dull to watch, but I really think it's one of the most exciting, you never know what will happen. A great shot can go wrong because of the wind or a small wrist movement. The thing that impresses me about tennis is that most of the shots aren't flukes, they knew where to hit it and where it would come back to their side.
Currently the only given in tennis is that Roger Federer will win, it's the safest bet but not a sure one. As much as Federer is arguably the best player ever, I'd like to see someone else win. It'd be awesome to see Agassi win, he probably won't.
Another great thing about tennis is you really get a sense of the players. Agassi seems like the nicest guy there is, Federer seems pretty cool, I bet Nadal is a cocky asshole, while Hewitt and Roddick are both tempermental whiners. I love watching the post-match interviews or the expressions on the players when they lose it just says so much. I love it.
I'm sure an analysis of women's tennis will happen soon, I've just watched a lot of men's tennis today.