Wha' happen?

Wow, where did the summer go? Today we play my last Ultimate Frisbee game of the year... outside and lucky we never had to face any snow. This photo was taken back when I first started in May.

Oh Wallpaper!

Today I went out of town for work. Drove out to Waterloo for the day, to do four presentations. At 11, 1, 3 and 7. Spent like 10 hours with the same two ladies who were also presenting. There was a bit of a generation gap between us. During lunch we talked about wallpaper for the entire hour. WALLPAPER! I wanted to cry.

It was a long day. That is all I will say. Driving home in fog as thick as oatmeal was also not fun. But I made it home in one piece so I am happy. The one thing that really ticked me off today, more than anything else, was those damned hipsters. Those bloody suede slouch booted, studded belt-wearing hipsters parked their cars in the parking lot I usually use, because THEY have a social life and are out for drinks in my hip little neighbourhood on a Thursday night. Grrrr. Damn you hipsters for making me park my rental in a lot 15 minutes away from my house. Wait a minute... I thought hipsters don't drive cars, but only ride funky old bikes? Even worse, my lot was filled with cars driven by POSEUR HIPSTERS! Can it get any worse than that? I don't think so!

Silvery Mullets

I've noticed that a large percentage of male Toronto Transit Authority street car and bus drivers have silvery mullets. I like it. It goes perfectly with the maroon jacket and grey trousers they wear.

Tonight, I am not working. I am catching up on some things I have needed to do for a while. One of them is cooking a meal for myself. Sorry Jared, I am getting pretty sick of Subway, every day.

I am starting to get excited about Christmas. There is just something so special about that magical time of year, where there isn't much to do at work and you get invited over to people's houses to drink eggnog with liquor, or cider with liquor, and you do a lot of shopping and eat a lot of seafood and cookies. At least that is my tradition.

John Mayer actually has a really funny blog. He made a great prediction about Borat and how it will effect us all in the coming months. Perhaps Dionne Warwick's Psychic Friends Network could be a second job for him? I found his blog through Perez Hilton's website. Perez Hilton is a gossiping blogger whose site I have become addicted to in my recent months of stress. Most of it is just nasty shite, but it is somehow comforting to read about some of the shite that goes down in celebrity-ville. Plus, other than the online newspapers that I read, nothing else is updated about 20 times a day, so it is instant gratification. With the blogs I read, they are updated once a day max, so it is nice to be able to rely on Perez to give me something fresh to read almost every time i go online. Plus where else am I going to read about Alien Cruise, Nicole Ritchie, and Lance and Matt's love affair? Hmmm?

Issues

This is a portion of an article that was in the Globe and Mail today:

The federal government pledged more than $40-million on Sunday towards microfinance projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America that help poor people access financial services.

Foreign Minister Peter Mackay said the money will be dispersed through Développement International Desjardins, Canadian Co-operative Association and Oxfam Québec.

He made the announcement to about 2,000 people from around the world, who gathered for a four-day summit in Halifax to discuss how to increase financial access for the poorest people on the planet.

The Global Microcredit Summit comes just a month after Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded won this year's Nobel Peace Prize. The premise of his bank is simple: providing tiny loans and training to poor people – women in particular – can create self-sufficiency and benefit whole communities.

Then I clicked to read what comments people made about the article. I always tell myself not to do it, because it gets me so upset, but I always click and I always get upset. Especially by comments like this:

dave srigley from Toronto, Canada writes: I am really very tired with my tax dollars being used for the benefit of foreigners.

James Cyr from Balmertown, writes: This money is not going to do one bit to 'alleviate poverty'. I resent my tax dollars going towards a farce like this!

Sometimes I get so very tired.

It has been a busy weekend. And I am fighting a bit of a cold. Having ginger in my tea will hopefully help.

For a long time - ok - a REALLY long time, like 15 years, I couldn't stand ginger. The smell of it would make me nauseous. I didn't want it in any of my food. Because I associated it with this time when I got sick when I was 10.

Picture it: Winnipeg, 1984. First trip to a province other than Ontario to visit Uncle R and family. I remember having my first rootbeer float. Going to the Canadian Mint where the money is made and that there was glass floors, horrifying me because then everyone would be able to see up women's skirts. Then one night we went to a fancy Japanese restaurant. It was one of those places where you all sit around a grill and the chef grills and chops everything up in front of you. Everything was so exciting and good! But so different tasting. In Sault Ste Marie, I don't think I had ever had anything with ginger in it before. It may have been too much for my bland, white-bread stomach to handle. Then came dessert, orange sherbet with chocolate chips. I'll never forget it. I was starting to feel a little woozy by this point. I had a headache and felt nauseous, initially blaming the strange combo of orange and chocolate (a combination I still dislike to this day). Once back at the house it was time for bed. My brother and I sharing a room, I had my Cabbage Patch doll Maggie with me. She had short blond wool hair. In the middle of the night I woke up sweating and feeling gross and suddenly barfed all over my Cabbage Patch kid's head (and the bed). I swear, her wool hair was never the same. My brother, being the one who usually puked, excitedly ran downstairs to tell my mom. She cleaned it up, got some new sheets and told me that the strange food probably just upset my stomach and put me back to sleep. About a half of an hour later, I woke up, feeling sick again. This time I had the insight to make a run for the bathroom. Halfway there I vomited all over the hallway, proceeded to walk THROUGH the puke and then continued my puking in the bathroom. This time, my mom brought me and a bowl downstairs so she could keep an eye on me while I slept. I woke up once again, not feeling the best but not wanting to wake up my mom by puking in front of her so I walked quickly and calmly to the downstairs bathroom before I opened the door and threw up. Only this time I opened the wrong door. It was the sauna, not the bathroom. I'm not sure if THAT smell ever went away.

2 things:

1) It amazes me that I had the capacity to throw up that many times. That was just so much vomit in me.

2) Kenya saved the day as far as getting me to be able to each ginger again. It was the ginger cookies and the Stoney Tangaweezi (Ginger Beer).

Detour

Strange the things that get strangers to talk to one another in this city. Today I left work with a plan to meet Viv for dinner. She's back in town after Paris and I haven't seen her in 2 years. 2 YEARS. As I walked to the subway I noticed the police cars, firetrucks, ambulances, sirens, flashing lights. I was REALLY hoping it was just a bomb threat in a near by office building. No dice. All anyone said was that the power was out and the subways weren't working from Eglinton to Bloor along the Yonge Line. RIGHT. POWER OUT. AKA there must have been a jumper. ANYWAY, I was waiting for a bus but on Eglinton it is impossible so I huffed my way down to St Clair and managed to get on a westward bus. It was filled with women. I really saw no men other than the driver. I asked someone if anyone knew if the University line was running. Suddenly we got into the topic of subway jumpers and how it happens once a day, you just don't hear about it that often, and why would anyone want to jump in front of a subway because you never die and then this one woman with a loud booming voice kept saying, "They have to back up the train, regardless of what state you are in underneath the train. So you get run over again. They have to back it up! The poor drivers!!" Then somehow we got into a group discussion about more effective ways about killing yourself and how pills would be good but then one woman was saying that she heard that when someone wants to kill themself they have a method in mind and stick to it even if it isn't logical. That is why they had to put the protective nets on the bridge over the DVP.

It was crazy. The funny thing is that the thing that shocked me the most was that so many of us were joined in this conversation. Slowly, as more people boarded the bus as we moved westward, the conversations died off and people stuck to talking to their friends in quieter voices.

Now, I am beat. And in knots. One of these days I am SO getting a massage. Tonight the only treat I get is an early bedtime.

Yellow Birds

On Thursday after work I flew to Vancouver. I tried to unwind in the plane. I didn't want to carry my stress over to my fun weekend on the other side of the country. I think I have been to Vancouver about 5 times now. It is really one of my favourite places. A nice city with great shops and restaurants and mountains and water and beaches accessible to the city! But every time I had visited in the past, I had been really lucky and only experienced amazing sunny weather. This time it rained. A LOT. Something called the Pineapple Express - "a subtropical jet stream that brings warm, moist air from the south Pacific Ocean to the West Coast." Vancouver didn't get the worst of it, but it was still rather rainy. But it was actually ok. Because now I know what BC is like in the rain. And it was still fun. So good to see GENNY again! Super hospitality by the two G's and their crazy cats. Much eating of sushi (TWICE - once was Japanese tapas and then ghetto sushi!), CUPCAKES (which make me so happy and yet so ill, as I have demonstrated before), and yellow birds (delicious drinks with rum and lime and Galliano and vodka). Additionally, I got to see the Tragically Hip, Borat, and rode a ferry! Life is good. I love it when I am away from work and any stress I previously felt just melts away.

But now I am back and angry and irritated with everyone around me and mostly just feel like hiding in my room and eating pizza. I hate the darkness that comes with the winter and gloomy weather. Maybe I should buy a sun lamp. Maybe I should quit my job. Maybe I should start listening to Yanni and meditate. Maybe I should go to bed.

I've still got it

Rage. Rage it what I still have. I got into a screaming match with a taxi driver who tried to refuse my fare because I wasn't going to the airport from the train station. After I had calmed down (successfully in the cab), I realized I hadn't screamed like that since arguing with people attempting to rip me off in Kenya. I hate when people try and jerk me around.

The rage I think is actually frustration stemmed from my job. These past two days have been tough.

It is a good thing that I am taking off tomorrow night for Vancouver for 4 days. I need the escape. I need to regroup. Everything is getting to me lately.

The only good news is that today I received word that Ken Weatherwax was the child actor who played Pugsley Addams on the Addams Family. Do you remember the name Ken Weatherwax? Come on, think harder.

Ken Weatherwax was one of the people mentioned in the mysterious email I received from an elderly couple in California (Phyllis and Phil Shopbell) while I was in Kenya. They thought I was someone else (probably Kathy Sangster who apparently was also in Kenya although I can't say I ever met the woman whose personality I inadvertantly stole). I initially thought the letter was a ruse put together by one of my friends. It turns out I was mistaken and it is pretty much the funniest thing that has ever happened to me. (is that sad?)

Here is the letter:

Hi Kathy - When I got your initial notification of what you are doing, I was flabergasted, but not too surprised because of the "something different" streak that runs in your veins. I commend you for your courage and go-get-'em attitude that brings your skills to many others. I don't know if I could do it. Where did you find out the information, link, etc. to all this? I guess all teachers have those hidden sources that make for unique adventures.

I'm still trying to figure out how to "pay Preston's rent." You make it more difficult being so far away. BUT I did forward a little something from Missouri when I was back recently for U. of Missouri Homecoming (hadn't been back for 46 years!). Also attended my 50th high school reunion. Anyway, I was checking on whether your house sitter, mail gatherer, etc. ran across a UPS or Fed Ex Ground package sent to you. I don't want it to be lost, just held for your return. When you get back, I'll ask you about some place you was like to have some $$ sent in your honor to help the people you have been associated with the last few months with less circumstances.

I acted as a precinct INSPECTOR (top monkey), while Phyllis was the JUDGE, for the CA Special Election two days ago, where Arnold got his come-uppance. The Precinct was our voting place at a local retirement center, Eskaton Village. Their living room was really a lot nicer than a fire station or a church. Long 15-hour day. Pizza & beer, both bad for my diabetes diet, but necessary for my sanity, was the reward after turning in voting machine, ballots, etc.

Paisley is home, having broken off her engagement to Ken Weatherwax. Hopes to find a job shortly while she finishes up her masters at the local Chapman U. campus. It's best that she explain everything to you.

Have you made a decision about whether you're going to "extend?"

All for now. Much love, PHIL

Have you ever been to Africa?

I am in London, Ontario. It is terribly boring here. I did 2 presentations this morning and afterward head to my hotel where I slept for an hour, checked my work emails, then head to the local mall for something to do. There were no sidewalks for half of my walk. But it doesn't matter because everyone here drives. I realized that it will be very difficult for me to ever live in a smaller city like this where I can't walk or take public transit most places. That realization made me sad and happy at the same time.

On the way to do my presentations this morning, I took a cab. My cabbie was very friendly and asked me about my work. Suddenly he asked me, "Have you ever been to Africa?". I laughed and said "How could you tell?!!" I swear, it's like I wait for people to ask me that. He made my day! He was from Sudan originally so we chatted about Africa and Canada. It was strange but great. Seriously, how did he know?

Walking home from the mall, I was depressed. It was time for dinner and I really didn't want to go to a restaurant, although the idea of room service seemed just as gloomy. I am normally ok with eating alone in restaurants. I don't mind seeing movies or going places by myself. But for some reason, it being Halloween, it felt really sad that I was alone. Like how it is sad if you are alone on New Years or Valentine's Day. But for Halloween, it is like if you are alone, it means you have no friends. I know that isn't the case and that I am out of town for work and that I have lots of friends all over the world but I didn't want it to appear that I didn't have any friends to the stupid waiter who would be dressed up and looking at me funny as I go out to eat by myself on Halloween night.

So I went back to the hotel and ordered a completely amazing pizza. The best pizza ever. Seriously. It was delicious. And then I watched Donnie Darko. How have I never seen this film before? It was perfect for Halloween night and just so great. So good.

There was only one problem. Patrick Swayze. I know that I am supposed to respect him or something for being in such a great film (despite the fact that he plays this evil, smarmy character), but I really hate him. There is just something about him and his chin and his weird hair and eyes and the way he moves like a ballerina that creeps me out. He is the sole reason why I am one of the only females I know that doesn't like the movie Dirty Dancing. Just like how John Travolta and his similarly creepy chin, hair, eyes and dancey swagger have always made me hate the movie Grease. Am I the only one?

C'est L'Hallowe'en

Very festive weekend. I attended the annual Pumkinpalooza at Chateau Nice, in which about 15 teams competed in carving pumpkins while being stuffed with food and alcohol. I WON SCARIEST PUMPKIN! I was so happy. I have never won before! At least at pumpkin carving. I did an african mask pumpkin. Later that day I went to Michele's for a low-key Halloween party at her place. We ate, we drank, we danced, we did Exorcist trivia. It was very fun. We were the Golden Girls. I was Sophia, despite my height. But I couldn't find a good Dorothy costume so it had to be Sophia or no one.

Now, after ultimate frisbee this afternoon, we set mouse traps all evening and I scrubbed the kitchen. I am anxious about the horror that comes with finding the dead mice. I really don't like that part. I really wish I knew someone who could come over and do that part for me. That is one of the main reasons I don't really want to get my own place just yet. It's the fright of having to go through something like finding a dead mouse, all on your own. At least with roommates you may scream but you also laugh about it. It's like when I was in Kenya and found the cockroach and trapped it to release it outside. It was freaky. If roommates were there, it would be more of an adventure than a nightmare.

Why you do this to me Dimi?

The Exorcist is a great movie. One of my favourites. In grade 11 we watched it at Nick's house and laughed throughout the whole thing. If you listen to what Regan is saying, it is pretty funny... in a demonic way. Next came "Exorcist - the Musical". It is still a little rough around the edges, but one of these days, it will be complete.

So today my jaw is killing me and while bored at work I started to get paranoid about the pain. I couldn't remember if jaw pain was a symptom for malaria or not. So I googled 'lockjaw symptom' and found the symptoms for tetanus.

Sometimes "lockjaw" is the first symptom – the involuntary clenching of the jaw muscles. Others begin with headache and irritability, followed by muscle stiffness and then muscle spasms. The muscles are described as rigid as a board. A high fever is common.
Involuntary contractions of the facial muscles create an eerie smile. Contractions of the trunk muscles can bend a person over backward, so that only the back of the head and the heels touch the floor.
Seizures are common, as well as loss of bowel and bladder control. Sadly, the person remains fully conscious, and in extreme pain throughout the illness.

But reading this, doesn't this sound like it could be the symptoms for a possessed person? Like Regan, in the Exorcist? Without the levitating over the bed and the glowing red eyes? Or do I just have Halloween on the brain?

Michele is having a party tomorrow. Google ads beside my gmail always amuse me. For example, beside the email from Michele about the party, is an ad for JelloWrestling.com. Not just videos or photos (although there are both), but an actual business someone has started up, selling 50 lb bags of non-toxic jello, and instructional videos on how to put on your own jello wrestling party. I wonder if their company is profitable? I can't believe that Desmond didn't think of it first!