Happy Days

The law apps are done, the job search ended before it really had even begun, and the decorations are adorning the apartment. Sadly, I do NOT have all my shopping done. And I really don't enjoy shopping in general. BUT - our Solstice party is coming up next week! Life is good. I'm getting into the spirit with some Trans-Siberian Orchestra and of course, the best contemporary cover of a Christmas song ever, "The First Noel" by the Crash Test Dummies.

I got caught wearing very impractical fabric shoes and a spring jacket on insta-winter Monday (what?! It was balmy when I left the house!) so I've broken out the cold-weather clothing. I hate wearing sleeves, but my winter coat is all fuzzy and just feels SO POSH that it kinda makes up for it.

The rain came and took away the wicked-awesome icicles that were forming outside our windows, but there's still the rest of the winter for them to come back. I took some superbly amateur photos of them pre-meltage, and once I get around to loading all my pictures onto the computer I'll be sure to post some of them.

Have you ever felt like a jerk because you were a jerk to somebody, and then they gave you a present because they thought that they had been a jerk to you?

Long story, but now I have my very own copy of The EcoLogical Calendar and it makes me smile to see two seasons of it stretched out across my wall. Unlike the traditional Gregorian calendar, it isn't divided into arbitrary blocks of time... time is presented as a flow, with astrological and biological rythms. The days and months are almost an afterthought. it's so intuitive, so organic - I love it. Now I can feel like I have more of a connection with nature even as I live in an overdeveloped residential area with way too much light and noise pollution and pitifully little nearby greenspace. Sorry, did that sound like whining? It was.

I'm working on simplifying my life, stressing less (ha ha) and lowering my ecological footprint. It's hard to stay motivated, though, when you're surrounded by glass and concrete and a secular religion that preaches consumption as the one and only God. As a child I lived on a Christmas tree farm in rural New Brunswick where I learned the names of trees, weeds and animals. I watched fireflies in July. I made bread with my Grammy - she always let me punch down the dough. On my breakfast cereal I had wild strawberries, picked from our yard the day before.

It was important that I leave the farm and pursue the life I have, but I'm also painfully aware of what I'm missing: the clarity of the night sky away from city lights, the smell of clean air and growing things, sounds that are easily drowned out by car engines. I have lived among all these things and in their absence feel a void that I lack the words to describe.

At any given time I may have up to three calendars on the go. It's currently two: a (gregorian)wall calendar in my room and a datebook that never leaves my side. I also have a notebook filled with to-do lists. I often tell my friends I don't have time to see them I average seven hours of sleep a night. I vaguely recall concepts such as sponataneity, leisure, even - gasp! - BOREDOM. Half of my awareness is perpetually focussed on the next task while the other half is usually on the lookout for danger. There's room for little else. The marvel that is modern western society.

Now I need to relearn how to notice what surrounds me. I can't remember the last time I even looked at the stars. The next cloudless night I'm bundling up and going outside; feel free to join me.

It's a good thing!

Subversive at-work blogging while the rest of the office is in a meeting, oh yessss.

I kinda feel sorry for the people who read this, because I either don't update or my posts are terribly unexciting. So allow me to tell you a story from yesterday, which some of you have already heard.

I was running late for the bus, as is my fashion. I grappbed my keys and phone and ran for the door - at which point I remembered that I had promised The Jenn I would take out the bag of stinky kitty litter.

So I grap the garbage bag and haul ass down the stairs of our building and back to the dumpster. I toss the bag inside...and my phone goes flying in with it. I'm standing there, already about to miss the bus, and looking at my pretty pink phone sitting calmly atop a pile of garbage bags. Unfortunately, said pile is not high enough for me to simply reach iside and snatch py phone. On the plus side the dumpster is fairly non-gross at the time. So I do what is necessary: I throw all my stuff on the ground and go dumpster-diving.

As I'm emerging, I see the bus pulling up to my stop. So I dash across the parking lot at full speed, only to have my rape alarm dislodge itself from my keychain and fly (screaming loudly) back across the parking lot. For a split second I contemplate just leaving it there but one of my neighbours is staring at me. I run back for the alarm and again dash for the bus - this time attempting to simultaneously fit the pin back into the noisy alarm thingy.

Miraculously, I catch the bus.


In other news I am almost done the law school applications (at last!) and am getting ready for the holidays. The title of this here post refers to the fact that I'm becoming a bit of a treehugging Martha - making soaps and yummy snacks rather than buying tons of useless stuff for the people on my list. I did go shopping with Trainee last weekend and tried to get some of my gift shopping done...I successfully found a measuring cup for myself and a late birthday present for The Boy. I also developed a burning desire for every product in the Lush store (except for the one I actually went in looking for). Sigh. I know I need to get a move on because Noel Nog is out now and if I don't get my gifts first I may spend all my money on creamy soy-based eggnog-esque goodness. It's just so delicious! Right now I'm sickish and losing my voice. that's bad because my job involves answering phones etc.

Anyway - the rest of the office is back. Must go.

Boring

Yeah that's right, I am.

My brain is mushy for too many hours of sitting around listening to people talk about tax-shifting (and I want a political career? what?). Actually it was really interesting - Ron Colman (GPI Atlantic) in particular is a phenomenal speaker - but just so LONG! Especially for a Saturday.

So now I'm labouring, drone-like, to get stuff done. I just finished my UBC application (it doesn't take much brainpower to talk about yourself, you know...if anything, it was easier than usual tonight). That makes me happy. And I'm listening to Metric and eating fauxgurt straight from the container. HappyHappy.

The first to fall asleep at the party

That's right, I'm the lame one. The Jenn and I went downstairs to watch scary movies at our neighbour's place and I fell asleep around 2am, meaning that I missed Aliens. However, because I fell asleep surrounded by people I know and then stumbled half-asleep back to my room, I had no post-scary-movie sleeplessness. And they didn't freeze my bra.

Today was my family's birthday party for my niece and grandfather. I got Emma a Beanie Baby (remember those and how collecting them was like crack for some people?) that was totally cute and she liked it until she opened the Barbie convertible from my parents and then suddenly i\I felt like my gift was totally lame. But hey, what can beat a Barbie convertible?!

Aaaand, I just submitted my first law school application. Holy crap. And I paid the $80 application fee so I guess I'm committed to going to law school. For the record though, if they're going to charge you that much to apply, the least they could do is write the application for you. Seriously.

Anyway, now you can't say that I never update. Bye folks.

Holy crap

I got my LSAT score a few minutes ago.

Contrary to Adam's propagandizing, I did not receive a 180. This is what the email said:

"Your September 30, 2006 LSAT score is 172. The percentile rank is 99."

For those of you who are most familiar with percentiles in the math-y sense, don't feel bad for me. In terms of the LSAT, the only thing better than the 99th precentile is the 100th percentile.

My heart is beating out of my chest right now. I need to go tell everyody I know.

Shhhhhhh

As usual, apologies for the infrequent posting. If anything it's only going to get worse over the next few weeks. The reason is that I'll be trying a grand experiment: actually listening to myself and giving preference to what I want rather than what everyone else wants of me. It's been a long time without stillness, a long time without hearing my own voice. The end of the LSAT has somehow not made me feel any different, except possibly more stressed because I now have a pile of to-do's that I had put off before it.

So, if you happen to call and the cell phone is off, or if you feel like complaining that I haven't been sending you random emails (Trainee!) or keeping you blogally updated (Keith!), this is why. It probably just means that I'm doing yoga in the forest, eating twigs and/or leaves, vaccuuming, watching House, hiking, making cookies while in a zen trance-like state, etc. Then smile and know that somewhere out there is a blissed-out Hipster who will soon be back to tell all about her zany non-adventures.

Or, at elast, here's hoping.

It really wasn't as bad as everybody made it out to be. The morning was a little rough, especially since I didn't sleep too well last night...but overall, it was just like doing yet another practice test, only in a quieter room. As long as I didn't think about the stakes being so much higher, I was a-ok.

Now I'm rewarding myself with uncharacteristic self-indulgence...I went out and bought not one, but two CDS - the War Child benefit CD and the Sam the Record Man 2006 compilation of local music. Then I made fabulsously fantastic sammiches with roasted mushrooms and red pepper and Sour Supreme (mmm, fake food good). And then I had chocolate. I should write big scary tests more often...

NOW who's the worst blogger ever?

Obviously, I'm suffocating in embarassment.

I have been repeatedly shamed by the members of my blogosphere and am finally updating. The problem is that my life has been busy yet almost wholly uninteresting. I go to my big-girl job and spend 3 hours a day prepping for the LSAT (which is in six days, incidentally). Occasionally I sleep, eat or watch House. Sometimes I freak out about having nothing to wear to my big-girl job.

Due to an unfortunate incident involving a canine companion and some severe indigestion, I was personally lucky enough to score a free ticket to the Metric Concert last week with Mark. We did a lot of people watching and felt superior to the silly teenage indie-rock posers, such as those who started crowd-surfing - 15 seconds into the first song. Not to mention Pleco Girl (obviously very inerested in her boyfriend, she quite literally "looked like one of those things that clean fish tanks")and the dude with the fauxhawk that really just looked like his head was pointy because his hair was way too short for a fauxhawk. Oh so silly.

And today we went to my grandparents' place for a family day, full of lunch and boatness and supper and a little bit of candy. My family is, as a whole, fairly awesome, as people often remind me. And they all told me I'd do amazing on the LSAT. That said, they also tell me repeatedly that I'm going to be Prime Minister.

Also: You all must be aware of how much I admire the work of Natalie Dee. It's partly because I strongly identify with her subject matter...

Unfair

Because I currently seem to be having trouble with the comment board at The Sneeze, I want to start my own unofficial poll and get my two cents in.

The question of the day is: are you physically unable to do any seemingly simple action (i.e. winking)?

I can only sort of whistle and I am utterly unable to blow up a balloon.
I can't roll my tongue, although both my parents can.
I can't burp or fart on command, and The Jenn mocks me for it often.

Your turn!

"Autumn's here, it makes you sad, about the crummy summer we had"

Okay it wasn't THAT crummy. I got to hug some trees and party a little. And no homework! But my point is, it got cold. Fast. So it is clearly fall and I didn't even get to a beach.

Anyway, as others prepare for school by taking advantage of all the school-supply sales, I must be all consumery as well. You see, my dear old computer bit the dust - or, in tastier terms, it is toasted, scrambled and fried. Mmmm.

All of this means that the purchase of a new Hell-Beast, I mean computer, is imminent. I'm going for a laptop this time, for the power-saving and portability-to-Victoria properties and the sheer betterness of it. The next question is what to get. My Code-ninja amigo Mark laid out what he says are my two best options. I'm looking for input from my readers, even if you're just some random who stumbles across the site by accident. So here they are:

A) A Dell, $600ish, best warranty in the business.
B) A MacBook, $1100ish, ages far more gracefully.

Mark for the record is a Mac person and is desperately trying to convert me, so we all know where he stands on this issue.

Additional considerations:
-My needs are very simple: email, Messenger and word processing. Occasionally scanning photos and obtaining mp3s off the Interweb. No silly computer games, no ninja coding, just the basics.
-I'm off to law school next year so I'd like something that will hold up ok for the next four years.
-I'm not broke or even poor(or at least, I won't be when I start my new job) but I'm trying to save up for the aforementioned law degree.
-I'm utterly spazzalicious and need a warranty that will protect against me accidentally mangling my electronics.

One thing that barely deserves a mention is that the MacBook comes with a free iPod nano. Personally, I think that's just stupid and a symptom of our ridiculous consumer-obsessed culture (yes, I'm always on)...charging more than is necessary for something and then trying to sweeten the deal by throwing in something that people don't need and, in my case, don't want and will rarely use. It might be useful for my occasional long bus rides to Maine, but that's about it. Mostly I've found headphones creepy ever since I read Fahrenheit 451 in grade 5 or whenever it was. Maybe I could sell it and recoup some of the exorbitant price of the computer...

Anyway. Let me know what you think, or if you have a better idea. Thanks folks!

I heart vacations

My paycheck will suffer but my happiness certainly has not. I started out the week by attending an environmental law & policy workshop and strategy session hosted by the NSE in response to the proposed amendments to the Nova Scotia Environment Act. The biggest problem seemed to be that the Act gives the Minister of Environment and Labour tons of discretionary powers but doesn't compel him/her to act, meaning that enforcement of environmental legislation is likely to continue to be patchy. Not to mention that the public consultation period ends 8 September (I dunno about you, but I JUST heard that the thing was going on) and they haven't been actively engaging with the public on the issue. The NSEN initiated this particular event in Halifax, and there's been nothing in any other part of the province. Just a quiet invitation to submit comments. Gah! So we're asking for them to extend the consultaion period and actually go out and get input from the public. This is our future, and we can't just let it be decided quietly in the boardroom and on the golf course. So please contact your MLA, Mark Parent (Minister of Environment and Labour) and the Premier and tell them you want a more thorough public consultation on this Act!

Anyway, I spent the rest of the week getting/making work clothes, cooking, cleaning, reading, staring at the walls...it was brilliant. I dragged The Boy on a brief hike in the Blue Mountain/Birch Cove Wilderness Area, which is a gorgeous and peaceful, though somewhat inaccessible, retreat from the insanity and bad-driver-ness of the Bayers Lake industrial park that borders it. We went to see Accepted - predictably cheesy but really enjoyable - and I finished off the week by taking Jenn to a going-away party for one of my high school friends who is joining the exodus out West. We met some fun people and recruited them for Fantoga 2006. Then on Sunday I cleaned my old room at my parents house and that wasn't so much fun because, well, it was cleaning.

Anyway I have loads to do this week because I'm going to Maine next week to visit the family before starting my new job. More interesting posts to come, I promise. The Republican branch of my kin never fail to amaze and entertain me...

R.I.P. shiitake log

You never produced any shiitakes, but you were a source of hope for 8 months, and the bright-yellow fungus that you grew in your final days added a splash of colour to the apartment before Jenn raised concerns about what kind of toxic spores it might be releasing into the air. May you journey unimpeded to mushroom-log heaven.


Great weekend...market, cooking, Buskerfest with the Sackville crew, then a glorious Sunday full of reading and staring blankly at the walls.

The difference between a duck

Well as most of you have already heard, I now have employment of the gainful sort, and after all the cover letters and stupid boring job-hunting crap I've done, all I needed to do in the end was to have friends who are willing to pass along my resume to the right people and give me glowing recommendations.

So that frees up a lot of time in my life, for LSAT prep and hugging trees and spending time with people and reading the summer issue of The Walrus, which after much ado finally arrived in my mailbox yesterday. I went on a Sierra Club excursion to Long Lake Park yesterday and forgot to bring swimming gear, but that's okay because one person brought an adorable dog and a few of us stayed on the shore and played fetch with him. I miss my dogs.

I wish I had something witty and awesome to say but my life is quite vanilla at the moment and I'm happy to have it that way.

Wicked tasty

God often appears to me in unusual ways. Right now I'm experiencing a divine revelation in the form of a sour yellow plum.

Overall, it's a good day to be alive.

Days

Today is Lammas, or Lughnasda if you will, the first festival of the Harvest (the second being the Autumn Equinox). Some people observe this holiday on the first or sixth day of August according to the Gregorian calendar, but I prefer the calculation that places it on the secong full moon after the Summer Solstice. It pulls our focus away from the artificial blocks of time that we've created for ourselves, and makes us pay attention to the natural rythms of Earth. Holy crap, am I becoming more hippie by the hour? It's a good exercise for me, though - everyone who knows me is undoubtedly aware of how calendar-obsessed I normally am.

Today also marks the 61st anniversary of the day a US warplane dropped a plutonium bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. It's worth pointing out that there is a movement underfoot in our fine city to get Mayor Kelly to join Mayors for Peace, an immensely important step albeit one that will require great political will from the mayor of a naval port city.

Just a couple of points that I thought you all might be interested in. Other than that, this hipster's life is relatively uneventful as usual...still languishing in underemployment in my overheated little store, still looking to improve that situation, still trying to find the time to get done all the things that I need done. I went to Mahone Bay for the weekend to partake of the Classic Boat Festival, formerly the Wooden Boat Festival - an annual event full of overpriced, very non-vegan foods and tourists who can't drive. I love it though, and I go every year. Everybody gets into the spirit and I generally get my ass on my grandparents' sailboat which is always a bonus.

I recently had a neat employment-related idea, but it's far too early to be talking about it with too many people. If anything does come of it, you'll hear all about it; if not, maybe I'll just withdraw from the job market and become a hermit like some repentant Dr. Seuss character, growing my own food and making my own clothes out of miff-muffered-moof.

Yeah I've done this before...but I was tagged!

omg nerdiness, fun, LOVE!

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.
6. Tag three people.

"Yet no one in charge seemed to see this as a failure. Or more precisely, no one in charge and none of the supporting ideologues were able to see this as a failure of the Globalist theory - a theory that had growing power for two decades. That is, twice the length of Napoleon's reign, four times that of a world war."

-John Ralston Saul, The Collapse of Globalism
(my "light summer reading")

I tag:
Jenn
Lisa
Matthew
(Mark is going away to San Francisco for a while. Bye, Mark!)

Totally wixjed

Yeah, that's right. I'll tell you about my weekend in a minute.

But first: I'm meeting Adam's mom tonight. I'm good with parents - I play the good-girl card extremely well - but it always makes me nervous. Especially right now, I'm still in partial wilderness mode because I haven't had time to cut my nails or do laundry or catch up on my sleep since getting back from the AGA yesterday. So let's hope she doesn't judge me on my appearance!

Anyway, over the weekend I went to the Sierra Club of Canada Atlantic Canada Chapter/Nova Scotia Environmental Network's AGA at this beautiful property in Yarmouth County. Imagine camping, vegetarian food and treehuggers all weekend, and then just try to imagine me not loving it. I'm not going to go into ridiculous detail right now, although I promise that the aprts that stood out for me will come up as I act on them. It was such a neat experience, as a rookie environmental activist, to go in and learn about the diverse efforts and where my talents are needed, and to figure out how I can plug into those networks. And people who are like me!

Huge step outside my comfort zone, what with the sitting in circles and sharing our "passions" plus the fact that just about everybody knew more than I did about the movement...but it was such an exciting start.

Cookies

A cookie for anyone who can tell me why I'm so insatiably hungry today. Then again, maybe I'll just eat it myself...

Walking around in glasses is like watching a 3D movie: ordinary things like chairs and tree branches pop out at you, looking abnormally well-defined and just a little fake. I've been playing this pointless little game where I look at things and see just how pronounced the difference is with the glasses and without. With, without. with, without. And so on, until headache ensues.

Dolphin-friendly tuna is all well and good, if you're not a tuna.

Pointless post. Blame BTFF, because he's bored and complained about not having any fun weblogs to read.

The store is as full as ever of zany madness...the people who sold us our freezer just over a year ago now want to charge us $750 to fix it because it's defective. Let me tell you the story of the freezer. See, for about a week it would blow its circuit every single day. The university electricians got sick of fixing it, because it was the only appliance on that particular circuit and shouldn't have been tripping the breaker, so they told us we were on our own. After almost a month the freezer company finally stopped dicking around and sent somebody in to look at it (today). The dude tinkered with it for a while and, trying to make conversation, I asked him if he'd figured out what was wrong with it. "It keeps blowing the circuit," he replied, as though that weren't (a) blatantly obvious and (b)the very reason we had called him in.

So an hour and a half later he leaves us with a partially-fixed freezer that I still don't trust, a wholly incomplete explanation of the further work that we need done, and a bill for $90. The general consensus around here is: I want that job.

Rainy weekend rising

(Sorry, I was listening to CCR at work today)

I hope it's sunny for the parade tomorrow...my "gay boyfriend" Matt is going to be in it and I'm going after the market to cheer for him.

Anyway, I've been cleansing for almost a week now and it's interesting to say the least...if anything I feel slightly worse than usual but apparently that's normal - the awesomeness comes after. I probably have less to detoxify than the average bear, what with the locally-, organically- and plant-based diet, the no coffee and the hippie soaps etc., but I'm sure there's lots of crap in me that wants to get out.

Anyway I've been doing pretty well...chocolate cravings haven't killed me like I thought they would, although I did cave and have a Clif bar at one point. I also got some process-y Italian-style veggie sausages which were SO GOOD. I've been waiting around for so long for decent veggie sausages. Aside from hot dogs (and possibly macaroni loaf), sausages probably have the lowest meat content of the meat products...so why has it taken so long for soembody to make a decent veggie substitution? Anyway, I commend Yves for their achievement. I'm not usually one for veggie meats, but sausages are the one flesh product I actually miss. I can't wait to try the Bavarian style, with some Oktoberfest mustard, maybe a little sauerkraut...mmmmm awesome.

I've also been drinking loads of water, with milk thistle and dandelion extract, which leave a very slight (but not unpleasant) flavour. It's kicked my liver into overdrive. Because of that I think I'll allow myself a beer tomorrow night - Matthew's visiting from Ottawa and a bunch of us are gonna kick it Griffin-style.

Anyway I promised information about some delicious ...I'll post the recipe soon, but for now let me say that they were fudgy and delicious, despite being made with carob powder, 100% whole wheat flour and no refined sugar. it's simply that I am a genius. Actually Jia Patton is a genius and I just adapted one of her cookie recipes from John Robbins' May All Be Fed. The genius on my part is knowing that in general (Dreena Burton's "More-ish Brownies" notwithstanding), if a vegan cookbook has a recipe for cookies then the dough will be better suited for brownies or blondies, while "brownie" recipes make better cake than brownies. See? genuis.

Quizzy love

You scored as Faerie. Faerie: Aren't you a cute little flying person? Faeries are earth spirits. They live among each element completely hidden. They have cousins called Pixies. Pixies however, are very mischevious. They enjoy tormenting other creatures for fun. Little pranksters.. I hope you never meet one. Pixies have a bad reputation for finding a creature and clinging to them until death. Faeries can be somewhat close to a Pixie, but mostly they are loving, playful, and carry with them a child-like enthusiasm for life. Hide among the pedals of a Daisy, you are a Faerie.

What Mythological Creature are you? (Cool Pics!)
created with QuizFarm.com

Coincidentally, this is the picture that, after some softening and curvifying, became my tattoo.

Also, if anybody can help me resize this so that my sidebar isn't all wonky, i'd 'preciate it. Thanks!

Have you hugged a tree today?

Having lapsed in my environmental activism while I was busy with school and Women in House,I was really excited yesterday to get back into it. I went to my first EAC meeting in months, and registered for the Sierra Club Atlantic Canada conference and AGM (now to convince my boss to give me the Friday afternoon off, even though I'm the only staff on for the summer), and I'm going to be helping to organize a Sierra Club nature outing for early August. Anybody interested in coming on that, let me know.

After I got home, Adam and I went for a walk to escape the oppressive heat in my apartment. I'm comfortable when everybody else is dying of the humidity, so if I'm uncomfortable then you know it's REALLY sticky and gross. There's a chance of thundershowers tonight, so hopefully that will break up some of the humidity...even though this summer's rain is already affecting harvests and driving up the price of Nova Scotia produce, which is no good.

Anyway, I should get back to work. I'll post later about the fabulous carob brownies I made on Sunday, the sassy new glasses I'm getting this week, the progress of my cleansing routine and various other hipster-related issues.

Friday!

It has been a long week of sitting indoors doing data entry. Oh well, I'm developing Excel skills that will help me get a new job...right? I've been doing up some applications and waiting to hear back about one that I sent off on Tuesday. The idea of having a Real Job (Capital-R, Capital-J) is at once scary and wickedawesome. Change is one of the best things in life, and when you add a challenge to that, it gets so much better. Now I just need to find somebody interesting to hire me.

The cleansing officially starts next week, so I'm going to the market and getting lots of healthy foods which I will cook tomorrow night in order to get me through the week. This past week I've been testing for a soy allergy, because when I first went tofu-head I suspected that I had one. It was probably just my body adapting, though, because I haven't felt different this week. That said, I cheated every step of the way. Don't judge: I work 35 hours a week in a convenience store. I make minimum wage. It's been too muggy to cook. Everything contains soy and if you don't believe me, just go into a convenience store and read a few ingredient labels. We even have a pile of soy-laden energy bars here in the store, which have expired and thus are free.

Actually, I've felt pretty fantastic lately due to being more mindful of my health. I start the day with an apple - I heard it was better at getting you going in the morning than a cup of coffee, and surprise! it's so true. Plus none of that crummy feeling that coffee causes in your stomach. I walk to and from work whenever the weather's nice, and Jenn and I have started doing Pilates or yoga together three nights a week. And this morning we had smoothies made with rice milk, frozen bananas, frozen peaches, fresh blueberries and this "natural flavour" Vega stuff that I found at the Superstore and had to try (what? It was endorsed by Bif Naked!). This very green powder, mixed with water like it suggests on the package, tastes (as my mother would say) "healthy". Meaning yucky. However, blended into the smoothie it was pretty good and I could say "whee! I just drank a synergistic collection of plant-based superfoods!"

We also smudged our apartment this week. I waved the smoke from burning herbs into all the rooms and Jenn used her pendulum to find spots of negative energy that we needed to neutralize ("Hey Alex, there's a lot of positive energy over your bed!"). I'm a skeptical little pagan but at the very least I find it psychologically beneficial to go through a physical act of expelling old energies and feelings so that a fresh start is possible.

Speaking of a fresh start - I now need to go work on some unfinished projects at my unskilled, minimum wage job. Sigh.

Oral fixation

I have a problem: I really like food. When I'm bored, I snack. When I'm overstimulated, I snack. I snack when I'm alone and in social situations of any description. Then, when I feel icky from all the overconsumption, I eat some more. One day my metabolism will forsake me and I will balloon out to approximately the size of a house.

This gluten-free week is a challenge (a fun one), especially given that I live next to a largely useless grocery store and lack the time or funds to do a really great job of this. So far I've noticed no change and it makes me want to just give up because I highly doubt that I have a gluten allergy. But, I have four days left and I'll stick them out.

I've had a lot of great stir-fries, rice noodles, tofu omelets and trail mix. Lots of extra protein in my diet this week because I would normally fill up on breads, etc but I haven't been able to do that.

Yesterday, being desperate in the morning, I grabbed some leftover rice and beans, and a can of tomato soup. As I was mixing them together at work I happened to glance at the soup's ingredients. ENRICHED WHEAT FLOUR. Effing effdiddly eff. However, I would not, could not waste food so I had about two tablespoons of what-laden tomato soup concentrate. Bad girl.

Today I have spiced lentils (yummy) with some pickle stuff that Jenn got from somebody. And gads of water, with which I hope to drown the tapeworm.

Ahhhh

(Please excuse the horrendous coloring...I tried to change some things and realized too late that I have no idea what I'm doing. I need Tainee - immediately!)

Finally moved in, finally settled, finally getting on with my life.

Today I'm taking a personal day, which is boring for anyone other than the person taking it.

Anyway my Mom got me this fun cookbook at Winners: The Artful Vegan and it's daunting but I can't wait to try it. Expect hard-to-pronounce dishes like huitlacoche-polenta roulades with chocolate mole and carrot-habanero sauce. Yes, that's huitlacoche of Steve, don't eat it!, volume 7 fame. Any volunteers to be my guinea pig? But seriously, there are some yummy-looking recipes, from seitan satay skewers to hard apple cider sorbet. Mmmmm.

Also, if you'll recall the ever-wise quizzy website telling me that Andy Warhol should paint my picture...well, I'm happy to say that he obliged. Sort of.

Out of Balance

Well, moving weekend is over and things should theoretically be getting back to normal soonish.

This, however, has been and will continue to be the week from Hades: after moving on Saturday, I came back to work on Monday and logged 13 hours, leaving at midnight (they wanted me to stay until 3) and coming in again at 9am to open. I spent a day and a half at work rushing the inventory and putting everything else aside to get it done, only to discover that the auditors don't even need it today. We're signing the lease tonight and cleaning the old place tomorrow night...I've barely had a minute to myself all week, let alone a good night's sleep. We didn't have real food until I went and bought groceries yesterday after work, so I've been eating whatever was available - including a lot of packaged food from work, which obviously is total junk. Now I'm getting sick and everything that could possibly go wrong at the C-Store, has. Everyone is on edge around here and it's adding yet more stress. I'm thinking I'll take a sick day tomorrow. There's nobody else on staff to work, but as the cleaner Tony reminded me just a few minutes ago, they don't pay me enough to worry about that.

So enough bitching. I'm finally getting back on that detox thing, and by now I have plenty to detoxify. I know that plenty of people live in similar styles all the time and still manage to function, but I think that by actually taking care of myself most of the time I've gotten used to being all healthy and balanced. So when I occasionally hit times like this, my body's like "what the fuck are you doing to me, woman?!"

I am cranky.

I am cranky. It's been a while since I've been able to just sit back and relax on my own, and it will be at least 4 more days before I can do so. This is my second long day at eh CStore in two days and I've been (unsuccessfully) attempting all day to get some change. The move is stressing Jenn out, and being around stressed-out people stresses me out. I have to run all over the place right after work and be in to sign the lease tonight, then do dishes and finish packing so that we can go through all the moving brouhaha tomorrow. And there's a bucket of chicken wings polluting my fridge.

In a situatin like this, my habitual response is to eat prodigious amounts of chocolate. Today, however, I really don't even feel like having any chocolate. Either this detox thing is working its magic already (unlikely) or I've been kidnapped and replaced by a changeling.

I will let nothing stand in the way of me getting a good night's sleep tonight, because tomorrow night is a birthday/going-away party pub crawl with a few of my favorite Sackvillians and I plan to partake wholeheartedly...at least, until about 2:30am. And without all the drinkingness. Because my little sister's birthday party is the next day at 1:30 and I can't face a gaggle of four-year-olds while nursing a hangover.

Ok I just had some chocolate. Just a little bit! I figure, this is my warm-up week and next week I'll be getting dangerous. And I found a gluten-free buddy: Adam is going to brave the dietary weirdness with me. Awwwww.

And now, this cranky hipster is getting back to what she gets paid to do: sit around the C-Store looking bored and doing the crossword in the newspaper.

Thus begins Day 2

This is also the earliest I've women up in months - I start my full-time CornerStoreness today. I'm surprisingly alert, despite the lack of caffeine. I read somewhere recently that an apple in the morning is more effective than a cup of coffee - I wonder if the same is true of lemon juice?

So yesterday was a challenge, what with working in a convenience store and all, with 8 kinds of yummy chocolate things on sale. It'll be hell when they're free. I drank a ton of water, ate a lot of rice (white - can't wait to move and buy brown rice again) and twiddled my thumbs. Oh, the temptation!

Today I'm quasi-prepared...I have a big stir-fry and a bag of almonds, plus a big ol buckwheat pancake in my belly. I haven't started the sugar- and gluten-free deal yet but i'vs started figuring out what the eff I'm gonna eat when I do. Lots of beans, lentils, rice, veggies and mmm-mmm raisins, nature's candy!

I also finally have a computer back in the CStore and it's wonderful. It means that I can take I Like Yellow back to its boredom-defeating origin in CStore summers past.

Hippie Alert!

I got a free natural-health-style magazine at the Supahstore on Monday night and was inspired by it. As I have been feeling very blah lately, lacking energy and suffering from horrendous skin, I have decided to try a detox. Not the juice-fast kind of detox, I don't have that kind of willpower. And I'm way too little to do it safely, methinks.

No, I'm going to start ACTUALLY exercising, and cut some stuff out of my diet for a while...baddies like alcohol, caffeine, sugar and processsed foods just because they're, well, not healthy...and stuff like wheat and nightshade vegetables to test for undiagnosed allergies. It's recommended that people also cut out meat and dairy, but well...I think I can safely skip that step

(Oh dear, I almost used a smiley-face emoticon...somebody save me from myself)

Anyway, then there will be a week of doing crazy things like starting every day with half a lemon squeezed into a glass of warm water (basically warm lemonade without the sugar - but I tried it, and it's not nearly as bad as it sounds), taking milk thistle supplements and bathing in epsom salts. Sounds relatively painless, really. I'll keep you up-to-date on the progress of this crazy adventure in Hipsterland.

It seems I was misinformed: it's Mr. DRESSUP who's going off the air, not Mr. Rogers. Still a big loss for the kiddos.

So, I'm currently wasting time that I really don't have to waste. I'm planning to hop over to Halifax Shopping Centre to find a gift for my sister's birthday party on Saturday. What do you buy the four-year-old who has more toys and books than she can ever really ask for?

And while we're on the topic of the young'uns in my family, it seems that my short blonde adversary is back to her old tricks. That cute, innocent pre-schooler facade may work on other people but I know what she's really up to. And I've got my eye on her.

So I hear Mr. Rogers reruns are going off the air. Apparently the pace of the show is too relaxed for Canadian children. Maybe that's because of the current ADD pandemic, because I watched Mr. Rogers for years and it was total quality. He had good puppet shows. Anyway I assume just about everybody's seen that clip of Mr. Rogers defending PBS funding before the Senate during the Nixon years, but here it is just in case you haven't. I know of a whole lot of children who could seriously benefit from the relaxation-inducing qualities of that voice.

Anyway I'm sure all of my Nova Scotia-living readers voted in yesterday's election, and a curse on you if you didn't (see archives from January 2006). The Conservatives returned with another (slimmer) minority, while the NDP won a record 20 seats (including Graham's, which is no surprise) and the Liberals got the remaining 9. I like this minority thing because it means that the Opposition (i.e. the party I support) gets way more say in the governing process. And that's a good thing.

Nine women were elected this time, another record for the province. That makes 17% of the provincial legislature. That's less than the precentage in Parliament, which is a sad figure in itself, but an improvement nonetheless. Assuming that Women in House will happen without me next year, the co-ordinator will have more to work with!

I was more than 3 hours late for the victory party due to an unfortunate incident involving cookie crumbs, a vaccuum cleaner that wouldn't suck and a highly distraught roommate, but lots of people were still there so I had a couple drinks with Krissy and Denis, did some very light schmoozing (I hate doing that, sitting down with a pitcher of beer is SO much more conducive to making connections with people), found out who to talk to about emploment, and FINALLY got a campaign pin. And an election sign for my room because I'm ghetto.

Then this morning I had brunch with Andrea at the Soup'er Sandwich Shop which offers a decent vegan omelette. It was unlike any I've had before and I think I would have preferred some good ol' scrambled tofu, but it was neat to be able to walk into a restaurant and say "could I get a vegan omelette?" and have them say "yeah, no problem!" What a wonderful world we live in.

I'm getting a little concerned about the quality of my Hotmail, as a few emails I've been expecting for over a week haven't shown up. I have been known to accidentally log out of my email when I meant to send messages, so I hope that's not the case here...although it would be preferable to being forsaken by my friends, which is another possibility. At least I've still been getting them from Mark, so I don't feel utterly dejected when I open my inbox every morning.

Anyway moving day will likely be Saturday, June 24th if anybody's interested in helping us move boxes. We're probably gonna hire moving guys to do the furniture, thus saving our friends and family the risk of back injury. We also have a bunch of old towels to get rid of, and rather than throw them out I'd love to see them go to the SPCA. So if anybody will be in the area of the shelter on Scarfe Court in Dartmouth and can drop a package off there for me, please let me know! Think about how happy it would make all the puppies...

And now I must leave you and get some sleep, for tomorrow will be spent with a four-year-old and we all know how exhausting THAT is.

P.S. A long-overdue quizzie thing...

Your Inner Pop Princess Is Shakira

"Baby I would climb the Andes solely To count the freckles on your body Never could imagine there were only Too many ways to love somebody" You're more a poet than a pop star.

Who's Your Inner Pop Princess?

Poll

he provincial Liberals may be miffed, after all this is a terribly unscientific poll...not nearly as reliable as, say, the Trail Shop's Crocs poll. However, since its results don't concern them and since I have nothing better to blog inanely about this morning I shall continue with my plans.

A few weeks ago this very conversation took place:

Alex: If you had a superpower, what would it be?
Adam: Deductive reasoning.

For the record, deductive reasoning is using general knowledge to infer specific details, as opposed to INductive reasoning, which is using specifics to figure out larger patterns. Or is it the other way around?

Anyway, what would your superpower be? Feel free to make up a superhero name for yourself as well - superhero names are tasty.

Oh, and anyone who reads this blog and never comments (this means you, Mary Ann!) is also welcome to take part in this very important research.

May I also point out the fledgling World Cup discussion taking place in the comment board for yesterday's post. Since, you know, people like sports and stuff.

Is it really?

June 8. So it's been a while since my last post. Life happens. It's been happening in a relatively substantial way lately. And it's about to go and happen again, in approximately 3 minutes.

Killing time

I have an hour before heading out to Quinpool to meet my Quebeckie just-got-back-from-a-year-in-Spain friend Manon at Clay Cafe so for some reason I chose to visit the computer lab and it's giving me a killer headache. Oh well, there's not a lot else to do on campus and it (tut, tut) looks like rain. For the record, if nobody gets that reference I'll feel like an outcast.

I did some door-to-door canvassing with Graham last night and it was actually a lot of fun - way better than phone canvassing to be sure, people are way more responsive in person and especially so when they get to speak directly with the candidate. Let's not talk about unpleasant experiences with calling people on behalf of a certain environmental organization...it must be even worse when you have to call and ask for money! You also have to admire a person who can engage with people on just about any topic. Kinda daunting when you're considering an eventual career in politics. I'm learning a bunch of the tricks of the trade, though, and I get to play Miss Political.

Anyway, it's nice to see interest in the environmental side of Nova Scotian politics in all the campaign brouhaha. The Herald has been running some kind of article about a related topic just about every day. The parties have also begun releasing their environmental platforms and of course, the Greens have their first-ever full slate of candidates (incidentally, they have more candidates than the Liberals, at 52 vs. 51). One thing I'd love to see would be the province taking over where the federal Conservatives abandoned us (when they cancelled the Energuide program), and subsidizing building retrofits for increased energy efficiency. However, removing the tax from home heating fuel is more popular so the political winds will favour that. It's so frustrating that the environment is marginalized as a "special issue" when really, it's everyone's issue and should be way closer to the foreground of our collective consciousness. We need to begin, as a society, to give the issue more than lip service.

If I were a superhero, my superpowers would be cartwheels and the sad face (with corresponding sad noises). Oh, and my supersuit would be made of organic hemp.

Update

They gave our apartment to somebody else. Wankers. Ah well, we've just decided to be dangerous and throw our cares to the wind - we're giving our notice to move out on June 30, and working our asses off to find a place before then. Worst comes to worst, we can always store our stuff and either move back in with my parents for July (they're be so releived) or into Adam's place, where they have an extra bedroom. Only stipulation is, apparently his roomate says I have to defeat the Weapons in FFVII before he'll deem me cool enough to reside in their apartment for a month. He hasn't really respected me since finding out that I was a fan of the OC...

Anyway, I've been making lots of scrumptious things with green stuff, including breaded tofu nuggests with baby spinach salad and cumin-lime vinaigrette; fiddleheads and chickpeas with Greek seasonings (lemon, garlic and oregano) on brown rice; and baby bok choi stir-fry with a ginger-sesame sauce. No photos yet, because I've been both busy and lazy. I also made a delicious but very unattractive eggplant curry (one of my favorite recipes), and buckwheat pancakes to try and use up some of the random flours I have hanging around. Buckwheat pancakes are about the yummiest and heartiest breakfast you can have, and they're great with bananas, or blueberries, or both.

Now, I ask you: why do people think that vegans have boring diets, when no other group of people seems to get nearly as excited about the food they eat?

Reasons why I love Spring

...include warm wather, change and lotsa green stuff.



My market haul today includes the habitual apples, tofu, samosas and oatcakes, plus fiddleheads (of course!), baby spinach, baby bok choi and a bunch of fresh-cut lilac to celebrate the season. I also followed a series of signs to a vegan bakery booth and got a yummy piece of carob-dipped sponge toffee (think Crunchie bars) for a quarter. It feels good to buy food that hasn't been shipped across the continent and back, and to deal directly with the people who grow and make what you're eating. Nobody knows produce like the people who select, cultivate, market and sell their own and I always get great advice from one dude whose family runs a stall at the Brewery.

Then I walked partway home and enjoyed the weather and the scenery, making it a near-perfect day even though it's not even 12:45 yet. I'm one of those weirdos who actually enjoy gray, cloudy skies. it's calming, helps melt away the stress in your life.

I've been inspired by Vegan Lunch Box to share my delicious-and-nutritious hipster culinary goodness. Not copying, exactly. I have a different cooking style due to my different lifestyle - i.e., she's a stay-at-home mom with the means to buy vegan imitation anything and the time to cook stuff, whereas I'm a cash-strapped recent grad who's almost never home and who prefers to eat local, seasonal produce and non-fake food. So there are very different demographics in question here. I think it would be fun!

Wait for the first recipe...this weeks' theme will probably be along the lines of "10 things to do with green stuff" because holy crap, that's pretty much all that's in my fridge right now. Along with Jenn's leftover KD(shudder). Sorry, food snobbery here.

Anyway, we applied for a new apartment and should hear back either Monday or Tuesday. We'd be moving at the end of June if we get it (and oh wow, do we ever want it) so if anybody wants to help us move it would be greatly appreciated. There will also be some free stuff up for grabs, since we're trying to move as little stuff as possible. So friends can stop by any time and see what's available.

Domestic Goddessosity

It's housework day, and this place has needed it. I have six loads of laundry on the go (relax, I don't have that many clothes...there's bedding and gads of towels in there), a sin full of dishes and crackers in the oven. Yes, homemade crackers! The feminist in me (ooh, she used the f-word) is sobbing hysterically.

I just got it into my head that while I'm spring cleaning, I may as well use up some of the flour, seeds, legumes and assorted hippiness that have been clogging up my cupboards since before I left Sackville in October. So I started by cleaning out the fridge - not nearly as gross as one might expect. After all, the roomie and I do like to eat. Interesting trivia, though: after sitting in an open can in the fridge for a month, Orangina turns to jello. Ditto for fiesta vegetable soup after 2 weeks or so.

I made olivada and oatmeal bread, two recipes from the lovely Garden of Vegan, and I've been snacking on them all afternoon. I'll soon be off to make some iced tea. Somebody save me from myself!

Anyway - end of boring, self-absorbed post. I hate those and am now filled with self-loathing for making anybody read this. Well, not real self-loathing. Just the hyperbolic kind, the kind you have when you don't really have it but you want to say something impressive.

Out.

No house cleaning for this tortuga

After looking at Adele's gorgeous old apartment (which we hill hopefully be moving into in July - hope, hope!) Jenn and i looked around our own and kind of went, ugh. So we've been tidying. It also has something to do with the fact that her dad is stopping by tomorrow and we couldn't have him seeing it in the state that it was in!

However, I loathe cleaning and am procrastinating the kitchen in a big bad way while Jenn is too enthralled with her new fish tank to care.

Guess what else? I have pictures! Check it out:











There's propaganda EVERYWHERE








Yeah, he's anatomically correct...and well-endowed to boot.


This guy, on the other hand...well, he was kinda vandalized.


When you sign up to kiss the dolphins, this is what you get...



Havana: black flags to mark the years of the continuing US embargo


Possibly the former Presidential Palace?

Nerdy girl

Gross early day on campus...I was told that Darrel Dexter might be here at 10am so I showed up...there seems to be something a-brewing at the pub right now, albeit half an hour late, so it might not have all been for naught.

There was a time when I would only get up earlier than necessary for, say, the Backstreet Boys. Now it's provincial politicians. I'm an adult now!

Hopwever, if this whole thing doesn't work out then I'll have plenty of time to work on those wretched LSAT practice tests, maybe read some John Ralston Saul or a newspaper. The nerdiness is becoming harder and harder to shut off.

Anyway dudes, this post is little more than procrastination and wasting time...now you're free to go on with your lives. Peace out!

Update: No Darrel Dexter. The university didn't want to appear partisan. Wankers.

Ew.

According to the Nova Scotia election site, the Tories are currently projected to win a majority this time around, with 31 seats. Now, there's a danger in investing too much confidence in polls and I'm not going to give this prediction too much weight (especially with a month of campaigning ahead of us) but wold we be looking at another four years of the PCs taking credit for Darrel Dexter's ideas? (Oh my, how very partisan of me!)

On a less-partisan note, I've been interested in the discussions of eliminating the provincial tax on home-heating fuel, which of course was on the now-never-to-be-voted-on provincial budget that was recently tabled. As an ecologically-minded left-winger I'm a little iffy on that one - isn't there a more sustainable approach? The provincial Liberals are talking about conservation measures instead of removing the tax. Of course the details of their ideas don't make it into the papers, so I think after I'm done writing this I'll do a little research on how they propose dealing with this issue. I'm also curious to find out exactly what the failings of the "Keep the Heat" program are - targeted spending seems a better idea in this case, get the benefit to the people who most need the relief, rather than encouraging increased fuel consumption across the board.

Anyway, it is a very early 6:30 in the morning and I'm BLOGGING, of all things, but you see I suddenly got really tired yesterday around 5 or 6 and went to bedultra-early because I'm a wanker like that. So, while some of you are just getting to bed I'm awake and (surprisingly) alert.

In other news, I am now a university graduate. How exciting! Now that I have BA and lots of academic awards, I shall be working in the convenience-store industry for the summer (let's hear it for that Arts degree!) and looking for something more, um, MEANINGFUL for the Fall. And by meaningful I also mean better-paying. jenn and I celebrated by eating lots of junk food and watching Buffy when I was supposed to be doing LSAT prep. Clap if you love your roommate! (clap, clap!)

Yesterday I dragged Nocturnal Boy to the Brewery Market and he kindly pretended that it interested him. It was nice to get back there after something like 3 weeks' absence - the spring vegetables are coming out, and - yes! - we got fiddleheads to have for supper tonight. I luuuurrrv fiddleheads! I plan to make a feast out of 2 pounds of steamed fiddleheads, sauteed in olive oil and garlic, and served with herb bread. Oh baby yeah - nothing says lovin' (or spring!) like roughage.

Jenn and I also went and bought some supplies for her fish tank. We also got Rufus, a very hip plecko, and Ivana, a female gourami to replace Isabelle, may she rest in peace. Johnny Money seemes to be leaving Ivana alone for the most part. She is quite young, so maybe he feels like a cradlerobber. Incidentally, Jenn rejected "Jem" as a female rockstar name - she said it was too girly. Now THERE's a switch.

This one's from Julie

Put your music player on shuffle. Press forward for each question. Use the song title as the answer to the question even if it doesn't make sense. You'll be surprised though. NO CHEATING

How am I feeling today?
The Crusher - The Ramones
"I'm over my head - I ain't gonna hide under my bed!"

Will I get far in life?
Two Suns in the Sunset - Pink Floyd
"You'll have no recourse to the law anymore" - uh oh, so much for my legal career...

How do my friends see me?
Happy Birthday Mr. Burns - The Ramones
"Go to hell, you old bastard!"

Where will I get married?
We're Not Gonna Take It - Bif Naked
Nope, this one definitely doesn't make sense...

What is my best friend's theme song?
Wild Honey - Us
"I was a monkey..."

What is the story of my life?
Por Mujeres Como Tu - Tito Rojas
Not gonna touch this one - the lyrics indirectly sum up my love life..!

What's high school like?
Peligro - Gilbert Santarosa
Danger. Oh yes.

How can I get ahead in life?
Cheap Transistor Radio - SNFU
Ummm...k.

What is the best thing about me?
Unchained Melody - U2
Hey, I like that.

What is today going to be like?
Malague a Salerosa - Salsa Ley Alejandro
Your guess is as good as mine...

What is in store for this weekend?
Island in the Sun - Weezer
Score.

What song describes my parents?
Dream On - Aerosmith

To describe my grandparents?
Simarik - Tarkan
My grandparents are Turkish pop? That's a new one...

How is my life going?
Bad Reputation - Joan Jett
Hehehehehe

What song will they play at my funeral?
Let Go - FrouFrou

How does the world see me?
Every Other Time - LFO
Now THAT'S embarassing.

Will I have a happy life?
Paper Shoes - Hawksley Workman
"You may think that you may want to try, you may want to try, try, try, try to fence me in, but I don't recommend - I'll blow the roof right off this place."

What do my friends really think of me?
Matrix Theme - Crystal Method

Do people secretly lust after me?
Love Machine - The Miracles
Apparently my reputation isn't so bad after all... ;)

How can I make myself happy?
Molly - Sponge
By watching 16 Candles?

What should I do with my life?
Blue Eyes - Cary Brothers
Sorry, not so into cosmetic surgery.

Will I ever have children?
Mia - Eddie Santiago
At first glance this seems like a yes, but the line "que nunca te hable de fracasos" makes me think differently - with children there are ALWAYS fracasos.

What will you name them?
Common Cold - Hawksley Workman
That's what I'll name my dog.

Who will you marry?
Whole Lotta Love - Led Zepelin

Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend?
Solo Con Ella - Puerto Rican Power
Yes, but apprently of the wrong gender...

Gah

Photos still not uploaded - I've been working nearly every day since I got home and I need Jenn to show me how (shame) - so let's talk about politics and ecology and (a few of the reasons) why I'm not so enamoured with Stephen Harper.

To boil it down to the basics: our beloved Prime Minister always went on the record stating that he preferred a "Made-in-Canada" approach to combatting climate change. Well, see, here's the thing. The Kyoto Protocol is basically a target for how much Canada agreed to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions, with a few mechanisms available for countries to work together, should they so choose, to reach their targets. Not exactly a fascist system there, Steve. Which led me to believe from the start that "a Made-in-Canada approach" was just a euphemism for "wimpier reductions targets."



Lo and behold, what has the new government done? Apparently, they have given the slice-and-dice treatment to a bunch of Environment Canada climate change programs, including the One-Tonne Challenge, and, in the new budget, replaced previous climate change funding with a tax rebate for public transit users. Unless that comes with increased funding for municipalities to improve their transit systems (ahem, the colossally dysfunctional Metro Transit), then "tax refund for public transit users" is clearly a euphemism for "impotent cop-out." Now, I'm excited to get a tax deduction for my bus passes, but consider this: a large portion of public transit users are university students and low-income workers, people who generally make so little as to be paying paying little if any income taxes in the first place. methinks that this is going to be a cheap program for the federal Conservatives, and one that helps to mask the fact that they're letting the big culprits off the hook for their contribution to our air quality.

Gah!

Fluffy

Well, Matthew blogged about the new Conservative budget, which makes me feel like a very bad poli sci nerd. Oh well, I'm going to talk about my vacation.

My sister chose to get married at the lovely Iberostar Varadero and I commend the choice. It's a five-star all-inclusive, which of course means that my little brother was falling-on-his-ass drunk within about 16 hours of getting there and missed supper on our first actual day there because he was sunburnt, probably had heatsroke and couldn't walk properly or drink water without spilling it all over himself. Amateur. Anyway, once that was over with we had a really great time.

I peronally refrained from drinking anything alcoholic before supper time, and I'm glad I did. I actually remember the week and didn't get all dehydrated and yucky at any point.

The ocean was that gorgeous turquoise colour you see in the brochures, and it looked great against my cancer-bed tan and overpriced swimsuit. (Sorry that was just a momentary lapse into girliness. I'm over it now.) I spent most of my time with the guys in my group and with a few more that I met there...I tend to get along better with dudes because they're so much more fun. Guys in this instance, for example, are like "let's play water basketball and then go drink some beer" whereas girls are more like "I just want to remain immobile by the pool all day to work on my tan...I can't go in the water because it will mess up my hair." Mom was awesome and did lots of water sports and everything with us, so i don't like to stereotype too much. But in general girls pretty much just suck when they're on vacation. I got a great tan and I barely sat still all week.

I drank lots of mojitos in the evenings. My new favourite drink - it's so refreshing, and not too sweet like a lot of tropical drinks. Really sugary alcoholic drinks make this lady gag. Mojitos are PERFECT. I drank so many of them that the bartender in the lobby knew exactly what I was going to order the second I walked up to the bar. It probably also didn't hurt to be young, female and cute, and a decent tipper.

Another vice I picked up - and this is a shame of shames for me - is cigars. I've always been against smoking (cigarettes, at least) but I tried a couple of cigars that the men in our group offered me, and I liked it. I really liked it. I brought back two for Adam and one for myself. It'll be a special-occasion thing.

I also learned that ovo-lacto vegetarians have it SO DAMN EASY. I want to slap every ovo-lacto I know for having it so easy. Okay, maybe I'd slap all the meaters first, but my point is that giving up just meat is pretty much the easiest thing ever. See, I've been gradually moving away from strict veganism, occasionally indulging in stuff that I really really wanted. So when I got to the resort and realized that they offered absolutely no bean-type dishes most days, and no peanut butter, I knew that it was a matter of either eating the occasional egg or piece of cheese, or be constantly hungry and tired from lack of a balanced diet. I mean, I'm not a big person, folks. If I tried to live off salads and fruit (as amazing as the fruit was) and pasta for a week it would be a very scary thing. So I figured hey, I'm on vacation, I'll be as good as I can and not sweat the occasional cheat. My parents said it was the most distracting thing ever the first morning, seeing me eat an egg after six years. P.S. I never really liked eggs, and it turns out that I still don't.

So I'm back to my usual eating habits again, but holy crap - regular vegetarians have it so easy! Anyone who thinks it would be hard to be a vegetarian is pretty much just a pussy. So easy.

Anyway, I'll give a more detailed account of my trip once I get my pictures downloaded. Good night everybody!

Who Should Paint You: Andy Warhol

You've got an interested edge that would be reflected in any portrait You don't need any fancy paint techniques to stand out from the crowd!

What Artist Should Paint Your Portrait?

The drunken post you've all been waiting for

Apologizing in advance for any typos or stupid comments made by the author of this blog in the near future, I really have to provide the disclaimer that I just came home from partying with my poli-sci nerd friends and that there was some...um...alcohol consumed and some conspiracy theories exchanged and I might have driven Roddy's roommate's cat a little nuts and I might be doing the same to KC...

Sometimes after a tough four years you just have to let loose a little and abandon all cares about your inventory responsibilities that are coming up in the next...oh...5 1/2 hours from now. How often do I really party? And more importantly, how often do I fall asleep in a tanning bed? Because it's highly likely that I may do so after work. Fortunately I tan with a responsible company and the bed will shut off after 12 minutes whether I fall asleep or not...

I should go to bed. All of my loyal readers are probably now laughing on the inside at the inanity and self-importance of this post. Comment at will, dear loyal readers. I'll be off eating toast and sleeping off a bunch of free beer.

Easter-y goodness

My peronal Easter bunny delivers gifts in a Supahstore bag rather than a basket, but that's just his style...besides, he's cute and has a GREAT new haircut...

I'm excited about teh Just Us bars (got 2) because they're the most deliciousest chocolate bars I've ever tasted, all mascobado sugar-y and dark chocolate-y. MMMM-MMM!

Edjamacated

Yes...Nagel and Nozick can kiss my bootay because I am DONE folks! It was oh so anticlimactic but that's okay. I had some delectable seitan at the Wooden Monkey and then perused anti-communist books about Soviet pornography at JWD. I then came home and rearranged my bookshelf to make room for the now-useless textbooks that were lying around. Next I think I'll make some banana bread and paint my nails just because I can.

Oh the freedom...how long until it gets old?

Your Famous Movie Kiss is from Spiderman

"I have always been standing in your doorway. Isn't it about time somebody saved your life?"

What Famous Movie Kiss Are You?

So close!

Something pretty for everyone to look out while i sort out my feelings for the two gentlemen currently occupying my thoughts - namely, Robert Nozick and Thomas Nagel.

philosphy exams

= a slow and painful death.

Things that scare me

1) economic policy

Last class of my degree and I got very little of it. A discussion on the IMF's gold policy, based on a group presentation from earlier this week, very heavy on the macroeconomic theories and whoa. I felt really left out of the discussion because overall I just. don't. get. it. I did, however, contribute more to the discussion than half of the group that was presenting. 98% of the questions posed to the grop were answered by one dude and he was clearly loving it. Which leads me to:

2) yuppies

Actually, they fascinate me more than anything. He was so excited about discussing monetary policy and he was getting up and drawing charts and talking in this very confident, even overbearing way. A total CEO in the making.

3) 4am

Which is when the cat woke me up this morning. Apparently my door slammed shut last night and he was trapped in my bedroom...however, it took 2 hours of being harassed before I was finally lucid enough to comprehend why he was on my case two hours early.

4) deadlines

Wednesday: one paper, one exam and two take-home exams. Eeesh. See you then.

Um... what?

You Are Machiavelli's Spawn

You're going to get what you want, and no one's going stand in your way. (Even if it's just knocking out your roomie to get the last ice cream sandwich!) People who slow you down, simply need to be taken out - by any means possible. You are the master of charming, wooing, manipulating, and intimidating.

How Machiavellian Are You?

I mean, uh, yeah...You heard the quizzy thing...bow down to me before I charm, woo, manipulate and intimidate you.

(Not an actual rock star)

I've always wished for musical talent - to be able to play an instrument adeptly, to sing powerfully, hey even to be able to carry a tune. I would form a rock band and write songs about stickin it to the man; timeless ballads called "Hazel-Eyed Nerd" and "You Make Me Feel (Like a Teeny-Bopper)"; tragic tunes like "Oops, Scotsburn Screwed Up Again." When my record went platinum I'd donate my profits to environmental causes and adopt lots of babies from developing countries.

If I were queen of the world all this would be reality.

Ahhh

A slight lull in the end-of-term madness and it feels really good. I caught up on my sleep last night and am (almost) ready to jump back into all the things on my to-do list.

Wednesday was Awards Night - the Poli-Sci Society won Society of the Year and I got the C-Store Manager's Award. That was really nice because I've felt a lot of frustration lately over things that have been happening in the store and it's caused me to worry that maybe I'm becoming one of those nutso type-A personalities and will die of a heart attack at 35 from self-induced stressed.

The night was Greek-themed, although they didn't serve Briam like Matt told me they were going to. Unless the caterers thought that that unusual steamed julienne-vegetable thing was briam. It was good, but definitely not Greek food as I know it. Then they brought out the desserts and there was baklava. I cheated and had 3 pieces - justified it because not many people had any, they ate the strawberry shortcake and chocolate mousse instead. Uncultured, tell ya. Most didn't know what it was...and I couldn't let it go to waste...baklava is my kryptonite, my favorte food ever. It tastes like sex - there's just no other way to describe it! Yummy.

I had to leave the awards ceremony early to finish my Social Policy paper - it ended up taking until 4 in the morning. I got 3 hours of sleep because I had to open the store at 8 yesterday. And it was a long day - not least because somebody dug through the staff food in the back of the bottom shelf of the milk fridge and took my soy milk and some staff member foolishly sold it to them even though we don't sell that brand at the store. Annoyed is an understatement. So after work I finished up some last-minute assignments, went to class from 3-7 then had a group meeting that went way longer than it should have. I finally left campus around 8:30 and headed over to Adam's where I promptly fell asleep while he played his silly computer game (Thursday night is WoW raid night).

Finally well-rested, I have lots of cooking and cleaning and other domestic-goddess-like things to do. Anything's better than more research papers at this point...

I'm not procrastinating

There are dishes to be done and a research paper to work on - and not much time left in which to do it. But I've been going pretty steady for most of the day. Finished my philosophy essay wit plenty of time to spare, which impressed me because usually these things end up being utterly last-minute no matter how early I start them - something about being a perfectionist. But at this point I'm just ready to be done. And that attitude has actually encouraged me to skip a lot of my usual procrastination.

Jenn's off at a movie with some of her friends...just before she left she decided to describe some of her favorite scary-movie scenes to me and then proceeded to leave me alone in the apartment. My big secret: I'm a total wimp. Let me qualify that. I can jump off sketchy bridges in Central America but I'm a total movie wimp. 28 Days Later freaked me out so much that I'm still working up to watching Sean of the Dead. Yeah. That much of a weiner. So now I'm all nervous, sitting around the apartment alone with the cat. And we all know that cats are sketchy. I turned on some Hawksley to soothe my nerves.

Bootlegger has, sadly, decided to stop selling Jones Soda. Sad. That was the only place nearby where it was available to the best of my knowledge. Oh well, I could do without all the sugar anyway.

Hell week is upon me. I'll let you know how it goes.

You are Dark Chocolate

You live your life with intensity, always going full force. You push yourself (and others) to the limit... you want more than you can handle. An extreme person, you challenge and inspire the world!

What Kind of Chocolate Are You?

Mmm chocolate. Long day.

This message was brought to you by your dentist

Somehow she always knows just how I'm feeling...

I had a filling done yesterday and for soem reason my dentist (who is normally awesome) put three needles in one side of my little face...I was frozen up to my eyeball on the right side and it didn't wear off for about 4 hours. Then once it did my jaw hurt where the needles went in and it still des - it's hard to opne my mouth far enough to eat. I have now sworn off chewy foods even though I am so in love with strawberry mentos.

What made it all worth it was knowing what the evening held...Jenny and Jennalle and I went to Dio Mio for veggie burgers and sorbetto, then arrived alte at the Cohn - turns out Hawksley didn't have an opening act so we missed the first two songs but they were from the new CD, which I bought at Sam's and am listening to as we speak.

The show was fabulous - the setting was well-suited to the more subdied nature of Treeful of Starling, and he performed a bunch of his earlier works as well. It was different than the show in October at the Marquee, which was more of a straightforward perform-the-songs-and-make-the-audience-all-want-to-touch-themselves kind of rock show. This one was more stripped-down, just him on a variety of guitars, a banjo and a xylophone, plus Mr. Lonely on the piano. So he played with what was available - a lot more vocal manipulation and theatrics. And as always, intensely sexy lyrics delivered in that passionate voice. *LOVE*

I bought a hat. It's really cute.

After the show we went across the street to the Dal SUB because the Cohn bathrooms had huge lineups. They were having '80s Night at the Grawood so we couldn't resist stopping by for a couple of hours and dancing to Cyndi Lauper and the Beastie Boys while drunk students in neon spandex stumbled around us.

"I was dropped, and I'm okay"

Andrea Dorfman = damn cool.

I've been getting up extra early lately because I've had all these professional-y events to go to lately - the Women in House reception Tuesday, my shadowing placement Wednesday, then the Tri-Mentoring dinner tonight. And I just invested in a flatiron so my hair looks super hot. On Tuesday at school I would occasionally be talking to somebody about something completely unrelated, then they would suddenly tell me how much they liked my hair. I felt a little like...Belinda Stronach, in a way.

So yesterday I job shadowed Dave Wilson, MLA for Sackvile-Cobequid (my former riding) as part of the Women in House events. It was soooo totally wicked...I got to sit in on the Public Accounts meeting while they questioned Ernie Fage, former minister of Economic Development, over the issue that journalists have affectionately named "potatogate." It was absolutely fascinating, at least for a Poli-Sci nerd like me, to see this guy who had voluntarily agreed to sit before the committee (of course, the optics would have been pretty bad if he hadn't) and then refused to answer any relevant questions, hiding behind a very broad interpretation of cabinet confidentiality. What was interesting was that he eventually slipped up during the media scrum afterwards and blurted out one of the things that he had refused to answer at the meeting itself. Even more interesting is that the Herald journalist, at least, didn't comment on that fact in the paper today. I mean, I'm just a lowly poli-sci student and hearing that admission made my head spin around immediately but apaprently a trained journalist didn't pick up on it or something.

Seriously though, there was a 45-minute media scrum after the meeting, between them interviewing Fage, Michel Sampson (Liberal - I'm not sure if I spelled his last name right) and Graham Steele, the NDPer who did the questioning at that meeting. It was pointed out to me that for politicians, dealing with the media like that is a total mind game, because out of a 15-minute interview, when you're having questions hurled at you from all directions, they'll probably pick one or two sentences to quote so you need to amke sure that every sentence you say is something that you wouldn't regret if it were taken out of context and printed. And that's exhausting.

Then I went to the NDP caucus office and got to sit in on a little strategizing session of the 3 members of the Public Accounts committee (Dave Wilson, Graham Steele and Maureen MacDonald) and it was just sooo neat to see how you have to kind of guess what the other parties are going to do and then swing with the punches when they do something different. Before I was thinking that I might eventually want to go into politics. Now I'm thinking that I definitely want to eventually go into politics! And if I can get a job working for the NDP or the Advisory Council or some other related organization next Fall, holy crap I will just die. So awesome. And I don't care if that makes me a total nerd. I am keen and proud. (haha keen and...keenan. never mind.)

So Adam took me to dinner at Mexico Lindo last night and then actually agreed to go to the Advisory Council (on the Status of Women, in case you're all wondering who I'm talking about) movie night for International Women's Day. How lucky am I? It was a bunch of shorts by female Nova Scotian filmmakers and they were quite good despite the array of technical difficulties involved.

Today I had a sort-of debate in Policy Analysis...we had to defend the recommendations we made in our group project on the African Union. I think we did pretty well...although it's pretty hard to make suggestions for African development that everybody hasn't heard a million times before and aren't utterly disillusioned about. oh well, the prof isn't a tough marker and we're practically done that class for the year as of Tuesday when we pass in our final report.

The Tri-Mentoring closing dinner was tonight (overcooked pasta, although it was a vast improvement over the plate of raw vegetables that Aramark fed me at the last scholars' luncheon) and I somehow found myself sitting at the VIP table with the president of the University etc, as well as Diana Whalen's husband, although I didn't find that out until after dinner when he had left. Diana is a fantastic lady and a huge supporter of Women in House.

So my mentor Andrea and I made plans to go out for drinks sometime in the next couple of months and she's still trying to arrange an interesting day when I'm available so that I can kind of follow her around and get a feel for the job. She is so awesome.

Sorry for the long rambling post...it's just been a crazy couple of days. I'm sure you all understand.

P.S. Wednesday after I got home, Hipster-in-Training and I sat around online looking up anagrams of our own names. The best one for mine was "anal rad ex." Mt full name proffered ups ome pretty nonsensical ones, but Adam's was a veritable gold mine. The best was "a laid mauve rug" although "a veda mail guru," "a guava deli rum" and "a miraged uvula" are also fairly awesome. So nerdy but so very, very wicked cool.