Don't get me wrong. I love my family to pieces. But I can only take so many diatribes against gay rights, so many bitter critiques of the minutiae of Obama's demeanor, so much nonsensical speculation about some apparent liberal plot to destroy America.
Give me Canada. Give me the CBC. Give me my bike and Frenchy's and the farmers' market and people who recognize the comedy in Fox News trying to sell itself as "fair and balanced."
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
spring. clean.
It was a brilliant and hyper-productive spring day here in Halifax. The Boy is on a plane headed towards Tokyo and, being on my own in the apartment for the next month, I busied myself with upgrading it from "squalid" to "messy." I'll be visiting family for the next week but check back on Monday 4 May because I'll be diving into some inner and outer spring cleaning and I'll need you to be my cheerleaders. It has been an intense, beautiful, enlightening and sometimes excruciating winter and it's time to sweep away the dust bunnies, air out the stagnant places and polish all the ugly bits until they shine.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Green smoothie + chocolate chip cookie - breakfast of chamipions
It wasn't easy but I came out the other end of Second Year in one piece. I actually plan to get some decent content up here, so if you haven't given up on me by now, please stick with me a little longer. Just don't expect much this week - I have loose ends to tie up, job applications to send out and a Boy to spend QT with before he heads off for two months to bum around Asia and then write the Bar. But soon! Soon I will once again be the sporadic blogger you all know and love.
xoxo
ST
xoxo
ST
Saturday, March 21, 2009
I am a consumer whore.
Ok, I'm sure you all know of my love affair with Maha Devi Design. Well, they're currently having a Spring Equinox Sale and I definitely bought a whole bunch of yoga wear...and a pair of "Pixie Pants" that are utterly impractical for yoga but will look superb while I hoop.
They also have a kids' collection and just let me say, I will be the most ridiculous parent because I absolutely will dress my child like an elf:
Friday, March 06, 2009
Whoa!
I'm going to Asia, baby! Singapore, to be exact, for an exchange next year. Yeah, the Tortuga in all her crunchy dirt-worshipping glory is going to spend 4 months in a conservative city-state where it's illegal to sell chewing gum and they increase green space by expanding the land mass into places where the ocean used to be.
And I'm beyond pumped.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Epic!
Long ago, when I worked as a desk jockey, Trainee and I would chat on MSN. Whenever I made a typo (which was often) he would make me come up with a definition for my new word. The Hipstionary has been lots in the sands of time (although a fragment has survived: "delicions" are the particles in food that make it tasty). There's a new one, and you can keep up with it here: Hiptionary. Time to expand your vocabulary.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Are you in on the Icing Transformation Challenge? Why not? This month - for the whole month - I'm going to exercise every day, eat at least 50% raw and totally forgo refined sugar. Please help peek me on my toes!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
New
(In which Sassy Tortuga engages in a long-winded and self-serving narrative about her personal journey)
Image from Bristol Life Drawing
Life is full of times of intense inner transformation, and for me this is one of them. A year ago I found myself questioning my path, my choices and the relationship that I had been in for three years. I had stagnated. So took off - across the country, looking for a place to call my own and a magical transformation that would show me exactly what I wanted. But as with so many life-changing experiences, there was no thunder, no fairy dust. I had a moment alone in the forest in Haida Gwaii, a magical place with which many people (some of whom I now count as friends) have fallen in love and decided to stay. But what I got out of that moment was simply "not here, not now."
I kept going with the career path - not because I had suddenly fallen in love with the law, but because it was still a reasonable option before me at the time. I still believed in my ability to use this degree to make a difference where it matters.
I ended the relationship. In retrospect it wasn't a sudden decision, but it was the first time I had found the courage to face that little voice inside. The person I long considered my best friend will no longer speak to me. But it was a sacrifice I had to make.
At that point I thought that things would begin moving, and quickly. I expected bursts of clarity, astonishing vitality. Instead, I couldn't concentrate, I got shitty grades and I slipped into a funk. Again I started to question what I was doing in law school and what I could do to get out - and whether I would have the guts to do what I had to do when I figured out what that was. With the economy in a nosedive I was anxious about money, about my future prospects. I had to think, and think fast, about job applications, and I had never felt less qualified to do what I was expected to do.
I felt like my Self was a dark house and I couldn't find the light switch. I knew it was around somewhere and that once I did things would begin to get better. But I couldn't find it, and I was stumbling and tripping over things in my efforts.
That was two weeks ago. I have since learned the most important lesson of law school so far, and that is not to let my self-worth depend on arbitrary comparisons to the people around me. I had created this identity for myself that was based on being a high achiever in my undergrad, and when I didn't keep doing more of the same I thought that I had failed. But quite apart from the fact that law school is a much bigger game than undergrad Poli Sci, that the players are all intellectual heavyweights and that even getting INTO the game is a colossal achievement, I needed to realize that it doesn't REALLY matter whether I have a superior grasp of the principled hearsay exception or if I'm hyperinvolved in student government.
I have brains in my head, I have feet in my shoes (with apologies to Doctor Seuss)...I make a mean salad, I have the cajones to take off across the country (or the continent) by myself, I'm not afraid to get dirty and I see the world differently than most people do. No matter what, I'll make a great life for myself.
Of course I haven't totally snapped out of it. There will always be things I want to change about myself. But most of the job applications are in, and the response so far has been positive (although I'm not going to elaborate just yet). I'm dating someone who truly blows me away - he's incredible. And I'm really putting the effort into honouring myself.
Instead of making a million and one resolutions this year, only to abandon them and then beat myself up over it, I've made one. I have committed to taking care of my body. The rest, I think, will follow. I'm eating healthy and getting active. I hate the gym so I'm finding ways to never feel guilty about not going: not just doing yoga and taking the stairs, but really awesome fun stuff: salsa dancing on Thursdays, swing dancing on Saturdays and hula hooping on Sundays.
Life is good, my friends, even when it feels like garbage. Thanks for sticking with me. I love you all.
Besos,
Sassy Tortuga
Image from Bristol Life Drawing
Life is full of times of intense inner transformation, and for me this is one of them. A year ago I found myself questioning my path, my choices and the relationship that I had been in for three years. I had stagnated. So took off - across the country, looking for a place to call my own and a magical transformation that would show me exactly what I wanted. But as with so many life-changing experiences, there was no thunder, no fairy dust. I had a moment alone in the forest in Haida Gwaii, a magical place with which many people (some of whom I now count as friends) have fallen in love and decided to stay. But what I got out of that moment was simply "not here, not now."
I kept going with the career path - not because I had suddenly fallen in love with the law, but because it was still a reasonable option before me at the time. I still believed in my ability to use this degree to make a difference where it matters.
I ended the relationship. In retrospect it wasn't a sudden decision, but it was the first time I had found the courage to face that little voice inside. The person I long considered my best friend will no longer speak to me. But it was a sacrifice I had to make.
At that point I thought that things would begin moving, and quickly. I expected bursts of clarity, astonishing vitality. Instead, I couldn't concentrate, I got shitty grades and I slipped into a funk. Again I started to question what I was doing in law school and what I could do to get out - and whether I would have the guts to do what I had to do when I figured out what that was. With the economy in a nosedive I was anxious about money, about my future prospects. I had to think, and think fast, about job applications, and I had never felt less qualified to do what I was expected to do.
I felt like my Self was a dark house and I couldn't find the light switch. I knew it was around somewhere and that once I did things would begin to get better. But I couldn't find it, and I was stumbling and tripping over things in my efforts.
That was two weeks ago. I have since learned the most important lesson of law school so far, and that is not to let my self-worth depend on arbitrary comparisons to the people around me. I had created this identity for myself that was based on being a high achiever in my undergrad, and when I didn't keep doing more of the same I thought that I had failed. But quite apart from the fact that law school is a much bigger game than undergrad Poli Sci, that the players are all intellectual heavyweights and that even getting INTO the game is a colossal achievement, I needed to realize that it doesn't REALLY matter whether I have a superior grasp of the principled hearsay exception or if I'm hyperinvolved in student government.
I have brains in my head, I have feet in my shoes (with apologies to Doctor Seuss)...I make a mean salad, I have the cajones to take off across the country (or the continent) by myself, I'm not afraid to get dirty and I see the world differently than most people do. No matter what, I'll make a great life for myself.
Of course I haven't totally snapped out of it. There will always be things I want to change about myself. But most of the job applications are in, and the response so far has been positive (although I'm not going to elaborate just yet). I'm dating someone who truly blows me away - he's incredible. And I'm really putting the effort into honouring myself.
Instead of making a million and one resolutions this year, only to abandon them and then beat myself up over it, I've made one. I have committed to taking care of my body. The rest, I think, will follow. I'm eating healthy and getting active. I hate the gym so I'm finding ways to never feel guilty about not going: not just doing yoga and taking the stairs, but really awesome fun stuff: salsa dancing on Thursdays, swing dancing on Saturdays and hula hooping on Sundays.
Life is good, my friends, even when it feels like garbage. Thanks for sticking with me. I love you all.
Besos,
Sassy Tortuga
Monday, December 22, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Confession: I have long harboured a desperate desire to go to a masquerade ball. We even have one in Halifax but I somehow haven't gotten there yet and it's also kind of more fetish-y than fantasy. Which is rad, don't get me wrong - it just doesn't quite scratch that God-I-Want-Jennifer-Connelly's-Hairdo itch. I might go for my birthday, though - as long as there's a good theme in January
Maybe I should learn to crochet in the meantime. Crafty lust!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
If I could be anywhere in the world right now, it would be at Linnaea Farm, doing their gardening program. I mentioned as much to The Boy a while ago and he replied, "Well, what's stopping you?"
What, indeed? One of these days I really will pick up and go - just wait!
(Not Linnaea, but the farm I was on this summer - also delectable!)
What, indeed? One of these days I really will pick up and go - just wait!
Monday, December 08, 2008
Dear Vitamix,
I can't stop thinking about you. You haunt my dreams. I fantasize about pressing your buttons and feeling you come to life - 2 HP of raw strength under my fingertips.
You may think I'm being unfaithful, messing around with those other blenders. But they mean nothing to me. I just keep trying, fruitlessly, to find satisfaction with them until your $600 price tag is within my means. You're the only one I want.
Please tell me you feel the same way. We can make such sweet, sweet smoothies together - not to mention soups, dips and nut milks.
Maybe the magic of eBay will bring us together soon. Until then I remain
faithfully yours,
Sassy Tortuga
I can't stop thinking about you. You haunt my dreams. I fantasize about pressing your buttons and feeling you come to life - 2 HP of raw strength under my fingertips.
You may think I'm being unfaithful, messing around with those other blenders. But they mean nothing to me. I just keep trying, fruitlessly, to find satisfaction with them until your $600 price tag is within my means. You're the only one I want.
Please tell me you feel the same way. We can make such sweet, sweet smoothies together - not to mention soups, dips and nut milks.
Maybe the magic of eBay will bring us together soon. Until then I remain
faithfully yours,
Sassy Tortuga
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Saturday, December 06, 2008
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