Gah - please help

I may or may not have blogged about this before, but in case I haven't - or in case you've forgotten - there's an organization in Hants County, Nova Scotia called the Avon Peninsula Watershed Preservation Society who are opposing an open-pit gypsum mine on the peninsula. There's already one gypsum mine in the area, and the company is applying to dig another one. They recently submitted their environmental impact assessment, which means that public input has to be received by early next week - I think Wednesday, but possibly even by Monday. So I shouldn't have put off writing this post until today - bad girl. Anyway, there are a number of problems with the proposal.

1) The environmental impact assessment process is notoriously soft. There's a desperate need for full and independent assessments of projects like this, but no dice.

2) The area is covered with valuable farmland and farming communities, which we need more and more as fuel prices rise, the need to curb global warming becomes more dire, and the public increasingly demands locally-sourced foods. It's also a big tourism area because it's ridiculously beautiful.

3) The topography is karst, making the watershed particularly vulnerable to contamination (say, from mining runoff...).

4) The proposed mine would destroy forest habitat which is home to a number of rare and endangered plant species and which protects the watershed by filtering out contaminants.

5) Even the possibility of a mine (and definitely the construction of one) destroys property markets, so retiring farmers who need to sell their land to pay for their retirement have little choice but to sell it to the mining company, making it even harder for the rest of the community to make decisions for their own future.

6) The company started clearcutting and doing other pre-mining activities even before the environmental impact assessment was completed, and local residents are already seeing a degradation in their water quality and forest resources.

7) Gypsum is 100% recyclable. Loads of it are taken to dumps every day, but builders are beginning to source recycled gypsum - calling into question the long-term viability of gypsum mining as a profit-making enterprise

8) Mining companies...aren't exactly rockstars when it comes to cleaning up their mess after they've raped and pillaged a piece of land. It's the local residents who will be left to clean up the mess...well, at least the ones who haven't left town in search of jobs once there's nothing left in Hants County...

It goes on. So please take a moment to go to the APWPS website (at the top of this post) and sign the petition. maybe even send a message to the Premier and to your MLA. We're talking about food, water and the ability to make a living without being beholden to some foreign company that doesn't give a shit about the big toxic hole they're digging in your backyard. These things are fundamental, and the consequences of one mine flow far beyond the immediate area...

Apologies for my failure to post regularly or to cut the excess white space off the above photo. But y'all should go to the next M4F - it's Saturday the 23. I'll be there, and so will a whole bunch of yummy food. besides, law school is eventually going to drive me over the edge and I'm going to become a farmer. So by supporting the farmers NOW, you're supporting my future. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Thought so. See you there!

Yikes - according to Carbon Zero, for Adam and I to fly to Calgary and back will create 1.65 tonnes of CO2. Gah! Instead of buying offsets, I used Carbon Zero's calculator to find out how much the offsets would have cost (just under $40) and I'm going to donate that much to the Ecology Action Centre for their ongoing work to create a more sustainable (or, as Sharon at Casaubon's Book prefers to say, "regenerative") society.

Battle of the Beasts

Bigfoot said:
TOMORROW. 3 PM. THE TUNDRA. WE PLAY MILLE BORNES. DECIDE WINNER ONCE AND FOR ALL!

Holy crap! It's a Japanese teen-girl ska band! And they're making a movie!

Freedom! Almost.

The last of the winter exams was Friday, which means that this lady has engaged in some high-quality brain rot over the weekend. I'm not out of the woods yet, however. The Christmas shopping has yet to begin in earnest.

What's a hipster to do when the consumer-whore season hits? Giving charity donations in lieu of gifts is fab, but it really depends on the person - and you can't do it ALL the time. I think a good strategy is to reserve that for the people who live far away, who will understand that you want to get them something more meaningful than a card but don't want to ship a bulky gift. And, of course, the treehuggers and social activists in your life will always appreciate it. But in terms of gift-gifts, there's lots of room for creativity. I happen to come from a really practical family - most years I'll ask my Mom and stepfather what they want, they'll tell me, and the surprise will be either a little something extra of a variation on the theme of whatever they wanted. For other people, it's generally a good bet to think of something they'd get for themselves anyway - soap, coffee, snack food, etc - and get them that, except of a higher quality than they'd normally get for themselves - and with a little hippie flair. The key to responsible gift-giving is quality over quantity. Most people have too much crap anyway, so if you get them a smaller gift that's obviously of high quality (bonus points if it's one-of-a-kind or has a neat story behind it), chances are they'll be just as happy, if not more so, than if you had gotten them a pile of cheap stuff.

Another option is something you know they could really use but won't get for themselves. This year my stepsister and I got our parents a digital camera (I can publish this now because we already gave it to them). For years Mom has been using disposable cameras, and she was totally thrilled to have a real one. As for me, the thought of all the plastic that will stay out of the landfills makes me want to dance.

And finally, I might be a little biased, being a member and all - but any chefs on your list might like a copy of the Ecology Action Centre's Food Action Committee cookbook. And your significant other would look fantastic in a pair of the EAC's brand-spankin'-new Radical Undies (get it? I said spankin'...and they're underwear...um, never mind).

The point is, have a wonderful and safe holiday season. Eat some pie for me!

Are you STILL checking back here? oh, my. So dedicated. Well, I should warn you that exams start tomorrow so there will be no new posts until at least the 15th. So save your time, get away from the computer and go have coffee with a friend, silly.

You know what's good? red wine, Italian food, chocolate and girl talk with your roommate. Not so good? Trying to do legal citations and make sense of finders' rights cases afterwards. Oy.

Correction

Re: my post of 15 October: The Chebucto Neighbourhood Association has until October 31 to drum up enough public support to STOP the (stupid, shortsighted, stupid, asinine, stupid) widening of Chebucto Road. Or at least to have it reconsidered by City Council. Please act. Seriously.

Post-Apocalyptic Skills Training

I'm learning to knit! My lovely amiga Angela has started a knitting club - we meet every week for beer and craftery...we had our first meeting last night. So now, if global climate change end up making it disastrously cold here, I'll be all set in my cozy socks and scarves and mittens and sweaters and legwarmers. Guess what you're all getting for Christmas...

It's that day when bloggers everywhere write about the environment - something that, you know, I definitely never do...

OK, first of all I want to call all Haligonians' attention to an urgent issue that's staring us in the face right now. The Chebucto Neighbourhood Association has until October 31 to drum up enough public support to start the (stupid, shortsighted, stupid, asinine, stupid) widening of Chebucto Road. In case you haven't heard of this issue, all the information is here. Basically, while other cities are responding to ecological realities by trying to DECREASE traffic in and out of their urban cores and to promote human-powered and public transportation, our illustrious Council wants to displace residents so that they can build more roads. So please, sign the petition on their website, and write to the mayor and your councillor to let them know what a colossally bad idea this is.

Next - and I'm not going to spend as much time on this as I had planned, because I am sleepy and also a little ill and still have 25 pages (legal size) of Public Law to read for tomorrow morning, and I'm also hoping to get some research done for my Pro Bono placement before I collapse. But I said i would blog about the environment today, and I like to think that I'm a woman of my word. So without further ado, allow me to introduce Sassy Tortuga's Guide to Saving the World for Poor Students and Cheapskates.

There has been a huge surge in interest in environmental issues lately, and that's fantastic. The problem is that, in adopting these fabulous new environmental values, we haven't questioned some of the social values that prevent us from making real progress - namely, the drive to consume. My understanding is this: during WWII, governments urged frugality so that resources would be available for the war effort. But once the war was over, capitalists needed to find another market to keep their businesses going, so they turned their gazes to Jane and Joe Everyperson. All of a sudden the frugality message was turned on its head, and modern-day consumerism was born. It's a tenacious ideology that has managed to subvert countercultures ever since (witness, for example, the pseudo-punk being sold at the mall). I've spoken to a lot of people who are discouraged about their ability to make a difference, because 'environmentally friendly' consumer products cost so much more than mainstream ones do.

The fallacy, of course, is the belief that we need most of these products to begin with - or even that they enrich our lives in any way. It's an attitude of "Buy the change you want to see in the world." And I'm sorry, but you're not saving the world by buying an organic t-shirt. It may be less polluting than a conventional one, but it most certainly has an ecological impact - there are still fossil fuels involved in the growing, harvesting, processing and shipping. It may be coloured using high-impact dyes, and it may be made in a sweatshop. Honestly, save your $50 and get a vintage one for $3.

The mistaken belief magical powers of consumption is the target of the "voluntary simplicity" movement. My favourite description of voluntary simplicity is that it aims for a "high joy-to-stuff ratio." Consuming less is not only better for the environment, it's better for your health, your sanity and your bank account. I didn't make a lot of money when I was working last year, but by curbing my spending I was able to take an entire month off at the end of the summer in which to do whatever struck my fancy. I spent some quality time with my Mom, went to the beach, got some fresh air on the South Shore and engaged in some high-quality sloth - and I still managed to keep a decent financial cushion to sit on. Voluntary simplicity isn't a doctrine of self-denial - it's a path towards freedom from the machine.

I promise to write some more about this later - I have some delicious and realistic ways of incorporating it into real life - but in the meantime I recommend the No Impact Man and San Francisco Compact blogs (see sidebar).

Nighty-night, greenyheads!

So. Yum.

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

On the sidebar, click on "Baking Porn" and drool your face off.

Miscellany

I know! I've been so very neglectful, breaking promises to post about various subjects and just generally being MIA. It seems that vacation, and then law school, have gotten the best of me. I had planned a post about the scrumptulous Equinox fest that The Jenn and I made, but then reading, etc. happened. And I've been at Adam's for the past several days so I haven't gotten the photos on to my computer in order to show them to you. I'm still at the Boy's so we'll have to put off that gratification for a bit longer, but in the interim here are a few things for you to ponder.

First, a small tribute: if you haven't already heard either from me or from Jenn's blog, we lost out baby girl Kali. It was all very sudden - she had a particularly vicious and untreatable kitty disease which we just found out about recently, and the vet advised Jenn that the best thing to do was to have her put down so that she wouldn't suffer. Love and kisses, Buddha Kitten. I miss you.

Second, I've been reading Casaubon's Book faithfully, and Sharon has some fascinating insights into myriad issues such as the the environmental crisis and sustainability, feminism, religion, family, etc. etc. if you didn't explore her site after I posted that last link to it a little while ago, I strongly encourage you to do so. There's one recent post that made my heart stop, both in its imagery and its implications. So often we think of issues like, war, poverty and climate change as abstract issues with no real consequences in our own lives. But as a woman, I was actually physically pained to read this piece. It spells out, in brutally human terms, one of the consequences of our actions and inaction, of the choices we make to either remain complacent or to work for change and demand it of our elected representatives. Can we sit back and let these things happen to human beings? Can we stubbornly refuse to change our habits until they start happening to us, or to our loved ones? I'm suddenly compelled to DO SOMETHING, having let myself get lazy and comfortable for too long.

And finally, not to end things on such a gloomy note...Gala Darling's blog is my daily fluff, and this post cheered me up somewhat after reading Sharon's dire warnings. I don't see myself going out and buying any Disney accessories, but maybe a whimsical trip to Frenchy's (or even just to the dark recesses of my own closet) might be in order...

How to explain Peak Oil to anyone

"More beer good. Beer comes from oil. Must. Save. Beer."

(big sigh of relief)

Hey everyone, thanks for sticking with me and checking back here despite my dismal failure at regular blogging. That may or may not change now that I'm on vacation - yes, for a whole month! Plans include beach bumming, Frenchy's shopping, family visiting and a combination of general productivity and utter sloth. Because as of September 4th I won't have time for any of the above for a good long time. If you think that's an exaggeration, there is actually a new-student guide on my school's website that pretty much says, "there is no such thing as 'after law school.' You won't have time for anything ever again." maybe not in so many words. But you have to read between the lines, y'know?

Anyway, Adam is partially moved in to his new place and it rocks my world. If anyone knows where I can find some fabulous art that is (a) big enough to fill most of a 12-foot-high wall, (b) suitable for a 20-something man-with-a-girlfriend's condo and (c) cheap, please let me know.

My mother has recruited me to help with her home repairs. The first stage is to get rid of anything she doesn't use, and today was Kitchen Day. To really understand the scope of this project, please consider that Mom has been hanging on to shower gifts from when she married my Dad in the late '70s. I came home with three boxes of stuff that may or may not fit in my closet-sized kitchen...

And that's all the news for today from the lazy and disjointed mind of a vacationing Hipster. I have a hankering to write some future posts about libraries, red currants, voluntary simplicity, how I ended up buying soap that looks suspiciously like hashish, my new lunchbox and other miscellany. In the meantime, please enjoy the new links!

Holy crap

I just got Scientology propaganda in the mail. No joke. I was about to put it in the recycle bin by the mailbox when I realized that it was in fact an offer for a consultation with the Hubbard Dianetics Foundation. Now I'm keeping it on the fridge so we can laugh at the perverse awesomeness of it all.

Still alive!

This is gonna be pretty much the most pointless post ever. But I wanted all (five or six)of my readers to know that I WILL be updating soon - with links, photos, more food porn, a little wisdom and a whole lot of stickin' it to the man! Don't worry, my vacation starts next Friday and then you might get more Tortuga than you can handle.

Love and bunny food,

A.

Photos, farmers, food porn and more!

My only observation of the Solstice on Thursday was to look out the window and say, "When's it going to LOOK like summer?" SO here are a few celebratory items to compensate for that oversight.


This is a photo I've been meaning to share for a while now - from back in May when Mark and I went hiking in Hemlock Ravine. The magic of this little nook, clearly inhabited by faeries, took my breath away. Mark was sensitive enough not to laugh at my delight.


two delicious events to check out:


"Musicians for Farmers" is the brainchild of a member of FAC who is also a local musician. It's happening next Thursday and proceeds go to Heliotrust, a wonderful organization run by the lovely Jen Scott. It's mandate is, quite simply, to keep traditional farming wisdom, heritage food varieties and small, local farms alive. For more details, please visit the website or better yet, come to the concert! There will be delish, local, organic food (included in the $10 cover price)and live music.


I'm also thrilled to be finally fulfilling my dream of learning to build a yurt! Selene and Alex at Little Foot Yurts are bringing their yurt-building workshop to Halifax in order to accommodate those of us who are without transportation of the car-like persuasion. Adam gracefully endured much teasing from his colleagues to get the weekend off work so that he could attend with me. I am one lucky girl.


And now for the much-anticipated food porn, I present to you my crowning achievement in the risotto category:


The recipe is from The Complete Vegan and the risotto is more Asian- than Italian-style. It's made with asparagus and oyster mushrooms, both readily available at the Halifax Farmer's Market. The red pepper was imported - I just had to make the splurge. This risotto was absolutely delightful - the flavours blended well, and the mushrooms were so tender they would practically melt on your tongue. *sigh*

And my fresh-fruit dilemma is finally solved. Just take a look at these beauties:



That's right, the year's first strawberries. Sooo luscious. I have other things to talk about here, but they'll have to wait because I need to go stuff my belly...

Straight from the Muppet's mouth

Seymour Green's new blog

Love in my tummy, vol. 2

Have you heard of The 100-Mile Diet? These two people spent a year eating only food that was grown, caught or produced within a 100-mile radius of their home. In an era where tomatoes from Mexico and apples from New Zealand are the norm in our grocery stores and refrigerators, that's a really remarkable thing - but please don't be scared off by the idea of it. Eating locally is getting trendier by the day, and the beauty of it (aside from the joy of really fresh, healthy food and the experience of living within nature's rhythms) is that "local" is open to interpretation. It might be 100 miles, it might be your community, it might be your backyard. Or, it could be bigger. I personally consider food to be at least relatively local if it was grown within the Atlantic provinces, although I try to opt for things grown closer to home when possible. I don't compare myself unfavourably to the 100-milers because most of my 100-mile radius is ocean and I'm not ready to go back to eating fish. And, after about a year of striving to eat primarily Maritime-grown food from the farmers' market, I've found that that these boundaries offer a stunning variety of flavours and textures. That's why I've started the Love in My Tummy segments: to celebrate local foods and the many glorious things one can do with them.

So, we're used to the usual four-seasons-in-a-year thing. But the truth is, there are seasons within seasons. Strawberries and blueberries both grow during the summer, for example, but not at the same time. Get my drift? Similarly, in the spring you start with the winter hangover - the last of the coarse, starchy produce like potatoes, onions and apples, plus a taste of the season's first hardy greens. Then you get to where we are now, surrounded by a smorgasbord of tender green foods that clean the winter out of your body and get you ready for the warm days of summer. These include asparagus, fiddleheads, green onions and beet greens. They're heaven if you've been living on a local diet all winter, but there is a slight conundrum: where's the fruit? Apples, which have been my default sweet food since October, have all but disappeared from the market. Rhubarb performs a solo as THE fruit of the season, and while I adore rhubarb I'm not about to start chewing on a raw stalk of it after dinner (but I won't judge you if you do). Fortunately, thanks to the wonders of modern refrigeration I was able to combine some free 'barb from my Mom's garden with last summer's frozen strawberries into a luscious strawberry-rhubarb crumble.



My photography leaves something to be desired but I am proud to say that my desserts do not.

If you have any local food recipes to share or if you have any special requests for LIMT reviews, please post! I love to hear from you all.

P.S. For more local-food porn, check out Slow Food Nova Scotia or the EAC's Food Action Committee - the latter website is slightly out of date at the moment but is soon to be updated by moi.

Following yesterday's ridiculous hotness, Adam suggested that we have a picnic in the Public Gardens today. We took some samosas, fiddleheads, rice and fruit downtown and lay on my recently-unearthed picnic blanket in the sunshine. Then we went to Dio Mio for some trendy douple-scoop frozen desserts ensconced in waffle cone - he had Cappuccino and Chocolate & Vanilla gelato, I had Green Tea gelato with Pear & Cardamom sorbetto.

Life is tasty.

Let's all wave to Mark in Scottishland!

Just opted myself out of the Canadian Marketing Association's mailing lists.

Link

I'll let you know if it actually cuts down on my junk mail.

I'm also considering this

Love in my tummy

Nothing says "FINALLY, winter's OVER!" like the lowly fiddlehead (photo from New Brunswick Tourism). Yes, they look like alien appendages but they're SO delicious and made even more so by the fact that they're only available for a few weeks out of the year - after that they turn into full-grown ferns and are no longer tender and delectable.

I developed a taste for these suckers when I was a wee little tot living in backwoods New Brunswick and they grew all around my home. Now I gleefully shell out $5 a pound and patiently stand at the sink rinsing off the weird brown stuff for the privilege of eating wild green stuff at the end of a winter full of squash and potatoes.

If you live in Atlantic Canada and have never tried them, I command you to get thyself to a farmers' market (the ones at the grocery store just DON'T COMPARE) and pick some up. They don't need any fancy seasonings - just steam them and add some olive oil, lemon juice and salt to let the flavours shine through. They're good on linguini (that's my plan for tomorrow's supper) or served alongside a light entree, but for the purist (or anyone, really) nothing beats a big plate of lightly-seasoned fiddleheads at the beginning of the season. They're a feast in their own right and will proudly stand alone in all their alien-appendage-y glory

Do you feel pretty?

For all the harping I do about excessive consumption, I'm addicted to Gala Darling and her fabulous dressing-up blog. I guess we're both just trying to make the world a more beautiful place, in our own ways. Plus, you have to dig that she's all about finding your personal style and using it to enhance - not define - your life (which should be satisfying in and of itself).

I'm inspired to see what I can create with the items I already own, and maybe a few vintage finds for good measure. Oh, and maybe something from Maha Devi because I could easily spend upwards of $500 on their hemp-and-bamboo, LOTR-inspired fantasy designs and yogawear. At heart, I'm really just a geek and a girly-girl.

If there's any interest in seeing it, I might finally figure out how to use my camera and take some photos!

Documentary about Dr. Bronner! Everybody celebrate by taking a bath and practicing the Moral ABCs!

I have found my American counterpart. She hugs trees, refuses to use disposable coffee cups, anthropomorphises her cat and has an unholy love for Martha Stewart and argyle socks.

New and Different

Spring is slowly returning to my little corner of the world, even though the weather is being even more of a tease than most girls I knew in high school. I felt it was time for a new look - to hold us all over until such time as we can finally put our winter clothes in storage. I've actually spent some time lately doing this strange girly activity called shopping. I got some brightly-coloured work clothes from Twice-Shy and "American Apparel. They're so summery and fun, I can't wait for the warm weather to come back so that I can show off my pasty legs.

No amount of retail therapy, however, can ever beat the thrill of a clothing swap...getting together with the girls, bringing a bunch of old clothes and dumping them into a pile. Everybody jumps in and takes what they want - absolutely free - and the leftovers go to charity. One of my friends had one recently and while I couldn't go, she invited me over the next night and I scored bigbigbig just from the castoffs. I got a gorgeous, earthy scarf that made a perfect cover for my computer desk, a nearly-new purse, two shirts, a pair of jeans that fit my ass perfectly, and best of all - a fab fedora-type pink hat. All free, all second-hand (and thus without the ecological and social costs of manufacturing)...and my old stuff will be loved once again.

In other news, after about two years of saying "hey we should join the Grainery Jenny and I finally did just that. I had my first shift at the Farmers' Market last weekend and it was such a blast. I got freebies from the other vendors (and this girl LOVES freebies) and saw a bunch of my friends who are market regulars but who I somehow never manage to run into. As a result of this socializing I have a potential biking buddy (for when I finally get my bike) and maybe, possibly, I'll get my guaro and my copy of The Lorax back from the person who's had them since 2004.

Life is good good good.

Famous

This is KC. He is two years old and lives in Halifax with his two Mommies.

KC is hot stuff and he knows it. He likes to accessorize with shoes and bags. He also likes to perform spirited musical numbers in the wee hours of the morning while everyone else is trying to sleep.

Of course, celebrity has not come without its costs. Being adored by millions has led to an embarrassing nip habit, but so far KC has been successful at keeping any incriminating photographs out of the tabloids.

If you love KC, feel free to send cards, gifts or money.

Proof that you really can find anything at all on the Internet

Which Princess Bride Character are You?
this quiz was made by mysti

Maybe I'll let my bangs get really long

I'm having an emo day today, and obviously I can't let that go by without sharing my imaginary, middle-class-white-girl anguish with the rest of the world. I'm looking forward to this long weekend as a welcome respite from dress pants, makeup, email and the general 9-5 gig that seems to be slowly sucking my soul out of my body.

It's an interesting trap that we get ourselves into, the attitude of "my life would be perfect if I just had x" where x = money, a car, a significant other, chocolate cake, hot girl-on-girl action, beer or, in my case, a vacation. I tend ridicule that attitude, but here it is invading my consciousness. There's no reason to be exhausted, cranky and useless, except that I'm focusing too much on what's "out there" and not enough on how I choose to engage with it.

Lately I've been (slowly) doing a big, multifaceted Spring clean-and-purge in the interest of maintaining my sanity and lowering my ecological footrpint. I think I'll be putting a greater emphasis on the mental and emotional overhaul that is part of that process.

The fabulous lives of the keen and nerdy

George Bailey wanted to travel the world. Sassy Tortuga wanted to move across the country. Neither accomplished said goals. But while one was stymied by family tragedy, the other was wooed by a certain nnearby and highly reputable law school offering freedom from shoddy part-time employment and student loans. Said school also offers exchange programs to trendy overseas locations so as to satisfy Sassy Tortuga's wanderlust. And she'll be around to see a certain two little girls start school.

The future looks very different now than it did just a few short months ago. This is me not complaining! I plan to use this freedom to mount an opposition to Facebook. I have yet to join Facebook. I am a Luddite and became highly distressed when Blogger forced me to switch over to Google just now. I might start etching my blog onto scraps of birchbark and tacking it up on a building somewhere rather than posting online. The geeks in my life would go into convulsions. But they'd get lots of exercise.

Snow days

How did Australians get so good at making candy?

Lately I've felt very...blah...and I made no secret of that fact. When I was in school and swamped with work, I remember still having the ehergy to do more, more, more. Now that I have a day job that I can actually leave at the office, I'm mysteriously too exhausted to even handle my usual stuff, let alone to take on more. I recently had this conversation with a friend of mine, a fellow overachiever who is experiencing a similar post-degree slump. We lamented our respective lack of zeal and wondered when we had gotten old.

I had an epiphany at the bus stop on Sunday. It's winter. it may not have looked or felt particularly wintery in these parts, but it is undoubtedly winter. In the wintertime, we are told as children, the trees lose their leaves but they are not dead - only resting. Similarly, the cold and dark have driven me indoors and into a dormant state...a time for reflection, recuperation and re-evaluation. There arebig decisions to be made and big changes for which to prepare. And nobody can be "on" all the time - as much as I try to be.

I hereby command everyone to give themselves permission to be a turtle for the winter. What's the fun in always being fun?

As mentioned, Nova Scotia's weather thus far has been decidedly un-wintery As if the Earth herself couldn't decide whether or not it was really time to go into Pod Mode. Chalk this up to conicidence, psychology, divine intervention or whatever strikes your fancy, but by the time I got off another bus later that day, snow was blanketing the ground. I put down my hood, lifted my face to the sky and felt the soft kisses of the fluffy white flakes. Somebody else seemed to have shared in my decision...

It's almost my birthday. Wish me lots of fair-trade, vegan chocolate cake with fudgy icing.

So I suppose I should update...

It has been a most busy time, what with agonizing over law school decisions, doing the Christmas thing and working at a Big-Girl Job. I really shouldn't complain about the first, seeing as how there are lots of people who would be thrilled to get into just ONE law school...but it's ridiculous how a couple of the registrars' offices want my $200 deposit at a ludicrously early date, far too early for me to make a truly informed decision. The life of a smart chick is so hard. Can't they take pity on me for being socially inept, having demanding parents and approxiamting the social life of a monk throughout my undergrad just so that I could get into their esteemed institutions? Can't they at least let me extort big scholarships from all of them BEFORE I hand over my own money?

Chrismas was nice despite my bizarre illness (it's like a cold except that I've been getting one symptom at a time and staying sick for unusually long). We did the colossal 20-pounds-of-mashed-potatoes family thing and I ate some tofurkey. All of my gifts were useful, which makes me immensely happy and relieved. There's nothing like Christmas to undermine year-long efforts to simplify one's life and reduce clutter and consumerism, but my family and friends seem to know me by now.

And now - try to contain your excitement - I have a new desk by a window. Life is good.

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.