Canadian girl out and aboot

A lot of stuff happened....


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I am very surprised that I do not have dreams about food security. Right now I'm doing my final assignment for my food security course. I'm writing about malting barley and increasing malt quality. I'm reading "End of Food" by Paul Roberts and thinking about going to see "The Sustainable Table" at my coffee shop tonight.

I think I am going to need a break from food security in the next little while. I could talk about it for hours. This is part of how I know that I'm making the right decision for myself at this point.

I got back from Stettler at about 5:30 last night. Staying in a hotel was kind of nice. I had a leisurely drive down on Wednesday and checked into my motel. I had supper in a restaurant and then wandered around downtown. Stettler's nickname is "The Heart of Alberta" because it is in Central Alberta. It's obviously got an oil and gas industry and I saw a lot of big trucks.

The sheep seminar was interesting. It was held in a big rec complex with a library, arena, and swimming pool. About 98 people attended the seminar. I ended up sitting next to a nice couple, who generously answered any questions I had. We sat through a variety of seminars, one about a new food safety program, and another about coyote attacks. I learned the various ways that coyotes attack different animals, which I found completely interesting.

There was one complete wingnut at the sessions. In one lecture, he commented on how the Canadian
N*gg*rs were obviously bringing money down south. There was an audible gasp from the audience. In another session, he commented on his fear that bits of Chinese tapeworm would infect Chinese dogfood and mutate on Canadian shores. I had a hard time not looking horrified and shook my head every time he opened his mouth. Fortunately, I was not alone in my feelings, and I could share sympathetic glances with others in the room.


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A few days ago, I watched "Control", the bio-pic about Joy Division. I thought it was a great bio-pic and it's got me interested in Joy Division. Yeah, I missed out on them, but at least I'm on the bandwagon now.

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My family and family friends are attending the huge gala for Bikes for humanity in Saskatoon. I thought about going, but it's a long drive and costs me a lot of time and money to go. I'm trying to find a few fun things to do this weekend, which is good. I think it may be a peaceful recharging weekend, which I welcome.

I got back from Red Deer at about 7:30 last night. I didn't have any plans, and I was sort of lonely. Generally I don't make plans for days when I have out of town trips, because I am never sure when I will get back and I'm sometimes very tired when I get home. This was one of those days when I wished that I had someone to call who could come over and watch a movie with me. All my friends here are people that I would need to call in advance to make plans. The comfort of being able to call someone on the spot only comes after many years for me, and all those friends live in other cities.

Anyway, I took this moment to leave my house and go for a walk. I decided to check out the new Urban Fresh Sobeys, which opened in my neighbourhood this weekend. The grocery store is modelled after a market. It is designed for people who want to buy small amounts of groceries, and who like to go to the market every day. There's a chef on site who cooks fresh food every day. The food can be purchased at the counter, or pre-packaged. There are suggestions for flower purchases, wine pairings and information about the produce. It's really yuppy and trendy, but extremely pleasant. There's also a front area where they have a salad bar and a sandwich bar. The store is clearly catering to the nearby student population, as there are a lot of pre-packaged meals, and smart wheely baskets. (I'd say it's similar to Choices in Vancouver, but much, much cheaper.)

I went there again today, and saw a lot of other people being grocery store tourists. Still, I'm a bit chastened to admit that I was touring a grocery store on a Saturday night.

This week, I am laying out three newspapers, as my boss took the week off to stay home and work in her garden and such. This was one of the reasons why I am taking so long to move; I really wanted her to be able to take a bit of time off. My last move was so rushed, and this one is downright leisurely.

I am a bit stressed this week, because I don't do layout often, and because I also have to continue working on stories for next week's paper. This, to me, is the most challenging part. If my coworker and I let things slip, we'll suffer next week.

My replacement has already been hired, which makes me happy.

I'm going to miss the newsroom. Even though my coworkers annoy me sometimes, I do admit that they make me laugh a lot. It's going to be weird to be working alone.

All in all, this move was a tremendous success. My life turned around, and I have moved up in the world. I am saying goodbye to lots of people in the community and I keep telling them that Grande Prairie was very good to me, and that I just needed to get back to a larger centre. All of this is true. Grande Prairie was very good to me, even though I did find living here difficult. At times, I was very lonely and felt isolated from my friends in other centres. I missed the variety and choice in larger cities. But I did discover new passions and facets of myself.

All that said, I'm excited to be moving into a bigger apartment. I've gone to living with people, to living in a tiny bachelor, to living in a much larger one bedroom. With that comes furniture, incluging a big girl bed instead of a futon.

I'm thinking that I might celebrate my first day at work at my new job by wearing silk pyjamas. Since I'm going to be working from home, I think I want to wear something outrageous for my first day. I might buy myself a lounging kimono, or some silk pjs a la Hugh Hefner. We'll see. It's all very exciting.

I'm working on a story about piercing, so I spent yesterday talking to body piercers. I don't get creeped out very easily, but I learned about dermal bars, and all kinds of below the belt piercings, and things that can happen with piercings and actually ended up cringing quite a bit.

Then I went for a massage. When I arrived at the massage studio, my new masseuse was in her room, hanging out with her son. She apologized a million times, telling me that her babysitter's father had died, and that her son, who was eight, was going to sit in the waiting room for my 45 minute massage. I didn't think this was a big deal. I even thought about telling her that I could cancel, but then I realized that she would be losing money, and obviously wanted to keep my appointment.

Her son sat in the waiting room, and I could hear him chattering a bit. He did come and ask his mom a question once through the massage studio curtain, and she apologized again for that.

After the massage, I paid her, and she apologized again and again. I really didn't think it was that big of a deal, but the whole thing really made me think about how weird North American culture is. If we were in a developing country, having a child at the workplace would be so much less of an issue. I remember going to lots of stores or restaurants or other places in my travels in Asia and seeing or interacting with the owners' children. I think we've really created a weird dynamic in Western culture, where children and family members are kept so separate from the rest of peoples' lives. And if you think about it, it creates all sorts of weird situations and problems; a need for extra childcare, children who don't know what their parents do, and children who don't know how to act around adults. My whole experience at the massage studio just really made me think about this separation, and how weird it really is.

Yesterday I did a schwackload of errands, then went to see Sweeney Todd, which I wanted to like much more than I actually did. I loved the aesthetic and the general mood of it and thought the acting was great. I just didn't really get into the story.

After this, I stayed up late reading Motley Crue's "The dirt", which was a huge mistake. When I finally tried to go to sleep, all I could see when I closed my eyes was big hair, debauchery, murder and mayhem. I advise you not to combine these two cultural products.

I went ice skating today for the first time in five years. I plan to go again soon.

I have been coughing for the past two days and really want to stop. I don't feel sick, but I have to cough and my throat is itchy. Ugh.

( What I've been reading lately )

I was just about to leave work today when I got a phone call from a nice woman who had found my cell phone. I wasn't even aware that I had lost it, but it fell out of my pocket while I was taking a photograph in front of my house.

She was able to track me down by pressing the number which read "Parents." My mother was able to give her my work number, and emailed me with the woman's home phone number.

Let this be a lesson- it's a good idea to have something generic like "Parents", "best friend" or "work" in your phone.

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Also in the "lessons learned" category, we learned that Lynne Spears, mother of Britney and Jamie-Lynne, is no longer releasing her parenting book and the launch has been postponed indefinitely. Go figure.

Courtney tagged me to spill five things about myself that you may not know.


Here goes-

1. I didn't go to school for part of Grades 4 and 5. I had problems with friends and had a lot of fights at school. My parents pulled me out of school and I studied with a private tutor and went to a therapist. In Grade 5, I switched out of my school to the Catholic school system. My parents and I think now that I was really suffering from severe childhood depression.

2. I think I've wanted to be a writer since I was about 10. I have always been fascinated by writing and tried to write a novel at age 8. I started writing haikus when I was six and the first story that I wrote was called "Zeke the flying Zebra." At age 14, one of my poems won an honourable mention in a contest at the Saskatoon Public Library. That's when I got hooked for life.

3. Before I wanted to be a writer, I wanted to be a special effects technician or a wildlife biologist. I used to love to watch Wild Kingdom, or Lorne Green's New Wilderness with my father. I would collect bits of bone, or blood from meat my mom cooked, or strange things I found outside and look at them under my microscope. I've always loved biology and got a 96 in Grade 11 biology because of my love of animal classification.

4. I'm a bit scared of balloons.

5. When I was 19, I was asked to be a junior writer for the pilot of a television show set in Saskatchewan. I attended story meetings and a press conference, but unfortunately we never got the funding for the show. I got this gig because of author RP MacIntyre, who was one of my earliest writing mentors, and I've acknowledged his support in my upcoming book. I was also a finalist for a YTV achievement award in writing when I was 19. YTV called my house, which freaked the hell out of my dad, in the best way possible.


Tagging- Whoever wants to.

I've been doing a lot of research on various places in Canada and I have come to the very obvious conclusion that our population base is ridiculously low.

Just look at some of these figures from the 100 largest urban areas in Canada by population . You see, I know that I am ultimately a person who needs to live in a major city and unfortunately, we've only got 3 that are over a million. Sometimes I think it would be better for me to live in the States, just because I love big city life, but you know, then my whole "Canadian cultural creator/producer" thing would have to go and I really love my own country. I love change and living overseas, but ultimately, I need to be in Canada.