prorogue: 1) the act of doing something similar to calling a timeout 30 seconds before the game is over, Parliament-style; 2) prolonging the inevitable. See also: taking your ball and going home; tattling to "Mom" (the Governor-General).
The amount and sheer magnitude of events here in the U.S. over the last few weeks sometimes makes me stop and think, wow. A few weeks? Or a few years, compressed into a much shorter time? One thing is for sure: these weeks have been historic, and will be studied years from now.
The saying is, "It's always darkest before the dawn." Here in my adopted country, I hope that's true. The U.S. has seen its share of dark days recently, something that began awhile ago with mortgages and home foreclosures, a prelude to the gradual meltdown of several financial institutions, the credit crunch, a stock market gone volatile, and forecasts of or admittance to a recession. Yes, I am a stock owner. And yes, I work for a publicly-traded company. These things all make you pay a lot more attention to the markets than, say, when you work for the public service (as I did, once upon a time and 3,000 miles ago). It's not pretty.
Then we had the dawn. This week, this country became a true global leader. While I cannot vote here, there were tears in my eyes as I watched the television networks declare Barack Obama the 44th president of the United States, and I had goosebumps as I watched Chicago erupt into something there aren't even words for. And should anyone doubt the magnitude and significance of this event on a global level, one just has to look at how invested neighbors around the world were in the outcome of this election. The world celebrated.
I was here at home that night, glued to the TV, and watching my friends' Facebook status updates as the results came in, state-by-state. An hour and a half after Obama was declared president, I was on a call with Bangalore (work stuff). The second I was off the call, I was glued to the TV once more. I was trading emails with family, updating my own Facebook status, and trying to take in all that I could, knowing it was one of those moments in life that I will be recalling decades from now.
So now, part two of this post. Where the hell have I been, and why can't I just update my blog? Heh. Good question. There was a time when I updated several times a week. So, speaking of living years in weeks, that's a pretty good description of the last 17 months of my life. I write for a living and am incredibly lucky to do so, and give 100% or more of my writing and myself to my career. Personal writing tends to go to the wayside, and I don't always feel that need to publicly journal what I've been up to. I mean, I went to a Matt Nathanson concert in San Francisco last weekend, and there was a time I would have documented that here in detail. Now, I think, other parts of life just come first. Or maybe I've just gotten out of the personal blogging habit and need to get back into it?
I'll give a nod to last weekend, though, since it was a very fun concert. I'll leave you all with this video that Jen took - you can see it was a good time! As we head into a new week, I hope it's as much fun for everyone as this video is. XOXOXO.
Hi everyone... wow. I'm sitting here, glued to the TV, watching election results come in. I can't even say how happy I am to be living in the US, living history. Once the night has come to a close, and the results are in, I'm going to write about today. I want to remember everything about the day, where I was and what I was doing as history was made.
For now, though, I wanted to let everyone know that you can follow me on Twitter - I'll likely update that daily or at least several times a week.
Vegas, baby. Or at least a few of the details that are fit to print. My life day-to-day tends to be very busy -- and having said that, I'd never trade it. :) My long weekend away, though, was the ultimate chance to just let go, relax, and have a lot of FUN.
Vegas began midday with drinks by the pool, lovin' the sun and just chilllllllllllin'. Breathe in, breathe out and just be in the moment. Later that evening, my friends and I got glammed up and headed over to the Mirage to catch the Cirque de Soleil show Love. I'd never before seen a Cirque show, and it took my breath away. Not only watching all the performers, who were absolutely incredible (and who made me want to resume the dance classes I took when I was younger, and to definitely devote more time to yoga) -- but the music. Love, as its website says, "celebrates the musical legacy of the Beatles." The show made me appreciate all that the Beatles contributed to music in a way that my university "History of Popular Music After 1945" class couldn't quite put its finger on. The funny and random part of the night was seeing Billy Idol in the lobby. ;)
After Love, we were stopped by a few of the lounge and nightclub staff who were looking to draw clientele in for the night. We were already on the guest list for LAX nightclub though, AND managed to get free champagne for most of the night. The next day was some shopping at the shops over by Caesar's Palace, some more pool time, and an amazing dinner at CatHouse. Followed by a short excursion a few hotels over, random run-in and a drink with "The Mole" from the TV show "The Mole" (except that I've never seen this show!), then another night out dancing at a club.
Vegas is such a cool place to explore. I love it! I'm not a huge gambling or casino person, but there's so much more to do there, and so much nightlife.
The rest of this week was pretty busy, and on Friday I went sea kayaking in Monterey for a team off-site. Love the kayaking part, just not the wetsuits. ;) Chalk that one up to six years working for Canada's federal health department and reading one too many consumer advisories or communicable disease reports, heh. It was a beautiful day, though, and we saw so many sea otters, sea lions, and harbor seals. I love Monterey.
And now it's Sunday night, with a few things still to do before heading off to sleep. Hope everyone's had a great weekend!
Say, hypothetically, you thought it might be nice to head to Canadialand for Christmas. Cos, y'know, you haven't seen your family in almost a year -- and hey, if you could get an Air Miles ticket and stay for a couple of weeks, maybe you could also take a few days and hop another flight down to Ottawa and Montreal to visit some friends there too, who by then you wouldn't have seen in a year and a half. So you pick up the phone and call Air Miles, because you know you have oodles of flexibility on both travel dates and airports. So for travel dates, you give them the option of departing Dec. 15 to Dec. 24, and the option of returning Dec. 27 to Jan. 4.
Choices of departing airports: San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, and Sacramento.
Choices of arriving airports: Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, and Toronto.
Silly me. I must have lost my mind there for a few minutes. No? No flights? No?
Well, Air Canada had some but it was the only airline out of the list. I like Air Canada, but unfortunately Air Canada doesn't like pets in cabin (and not that I'd ever put my dog in cargo, but for information's sake, most airlines don't take pets in cargo during the Christmas travel season).
Soldiering on. Anyone else think it's funny that the fare from California to Thunder Bay is about the same as the fare from California to Melbourne or Sydney, Australia? Same continent vs. other side of the world. There's something more than a little wrong with this picture. And you at least still get complimentary non-alcoholic drinks on trans-continental flights.
Hello... random babble before I go to bed. I'm sleeeepy!! I got back today from a very fun weekend in Vegas! Sometime over the next few days I'll put up more pics in the gallery (too happily sleepy today to resize and upload all the photos) and I'll post about the weekend!
Forget "Turkey Day," better make that "Turkey Week." I decline to comment on whether or not that's a political statement.
I have to say, it took me the better part of yesterday to figure out that an election had been called in Canada. The only reason I even clued in was because Rick Mercer had written a blog post that was in my inbox yesterday morning when I woke up. And even after reading that, it wasn't until late afternoon as I was getting ready to leave work for the day that I thought, "Wait a second..."
So I ventured over to CBC.ca, naturally assuming that if an election had been called, it would be the top story on the front page. Silly me, I've been in the U.S. for over a year now, where one facet or another of the presidential election has made top news headlines since last summer -- and the election here isn't until November. At 5 p.m. PDT yesterday, though, prime "real estate" on CBC.ca's front page included Wheel of Fortune being on at 5:30 p.m. (6 in Newfoundland), coverage of the Canadian Country Music Awards, and something about discovering online fun with Gofrette. And on the CBCNews.ca section below it, left-side of the page? Some stock image of a dude yelling at his cell phone and a headline for and link to the accompanying story, which was obviously more important than the future of the country.
When I checked again this morning, CBC.ca had remedied their temporary lapse in news value judgment and was giving much more prominence to election coverage. Having said that, though, I can't really blame them for yesterday. When you call an election in September for October 14, the DAY AFTER CANADIAN THANKSGIVING, when a lot of people have likely already made travel plans and will either have to vote early or not vote at all, I can't say that it reflects well on a certain political party taking the notion of democracy all that seriously. Good job trying to set the stage for low voter turnout, an admirable election strategy. (And by admirable, I mean... well, you fill in the blank.)
I have to say that I truly like how the U.S. political system works, leading up to a presidential election. The political parties take it very seriously, as do the news media. Even though I've always been heavily interested in politics, I've never been so informed about the candidates, their positions on issues, and, well, everything they've eaten or worn this week, or as excited about an election -- and I can't even vote here.
But I can vote in Canada, and no thanks to the blink-and-you'll-miss-it campaign time, I will be voting via an absentee ballot. All Canadians outside of the country, remember to visit Election Canada's website to complete your absentee ballot application form. I don't care who you vote for, just VOTE -- don't let their choice of election day and 5 1/2 week campaign time make a mockery of the democratic system.
And if you're looking for some great reading, check out Rick Mercer's latest blog post about the election, "Lights, Camera, Action!"
I was adding the WeatherBug application to my Facebook profile a few minutes ago -- what? I grew up in Canada, I'm a weather freak, I will forever be obsessed by it even though I no longer have to deal with skin freeze warnings, flash freeze warnings, blizzards, ice storms, black ice, tornado watches, or humidity levels that could put a sauna to shame -- and I thought hey, let's check out the weather in my former hometowns of Ottawa and Thunder Bay.
When I got to the bottom of the Thunder Bay weather page on Environment Canada's website, I burst out laughing. Check out the circled minimum temperature recorded for "Yesterday" in the "Historical Data" table.
While I've heard the summer weather was sub-par there this year, somehow I think I would have heard about almost 73 degrees below zero. Unless, you know, all the phone lines froze and the power went out alongside the dawn of the short-lived new ice age. So is it a data input error or sarcastic weather commentary? Whatever the case, it made me giggle.
What's back? The SPPNTCJ -- The Society for Preventing Parents from Naming Their Children Jennifer. Also known as a site I kept between 1996 and 2000.
I'm still waiting for some application approvals for adding site advertising, etc., and can't wait to get rolling with the Jennifer stories, Jennifer links, and SPPNTCJ members pages. So go on, have a look, and be sure to add the News page feed and the Jennifer stories feed. If you like it, please spread the word!
Some product genius somewhere in the world clearly had a serious case of cabin fever, likely having forgone his or her vacation due to the cost of gas and the airlines' recent favorite pastime of "I'll see your second checked bag fee, and raise you a first bag money-grab while bleeding economy passengers dry for half a glass of water." That's the only thing that can possibly explain BERRY SCENTED RAZORS. Because we all like to raise sharp blades to our nostrils while inhaling deeply to fully absorb that sweet aromatherapy meant to transport us to a far off berry patch Utopia, where we can imagine ourselves languishing in the sun sipping pomegranate margaritas while, you know, not paying attention to the actual act of razor to skin. Huh. Must've missed that part of Hygiene 101.
It's not like you can draw with a razor, like you can with Mr. Sketch scented markers. And you can't really light a razor like a scented candle, because last I checked, burning rubber anything was just a bad idea. I suppose you could use berry scented razors as a substitute air freshener. Not recommended if you have small children or pets, and on that note, thank you for the advent of another small object that to my dog, probably smells good enough to eat. Not that I plan to keep razors anywhere he could possibly get ahold of him, but never underestimate dogs and adventurous toddlers. My Shih Tzu can pull tea towels off the kitchen counter and for him, that's an Olympic-worthy high jump.
And so I remain entirely perplexed. And I'll say it right now, that if Liquid Paper comes out with berry scented white out, I'm going to be just a little bit concerned. ;)
Nothing big, just three questions from a meme I saw on Iris' blog. I decided to stick to the "What were you doing, what are you doing, what would you do" questions. Enjoy!
1) What was I doing 10 years ago?
July 1998. I was 18 years old and had just finished grade 12 -- in Ontario at the time, there was a grade 13, aka OAC, so I had one year of high school to go. I had just started working in the bedding, bath and linens department of a department store, quite happy to leave my job at a movie theatre. I lived in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, where I was born and raised. I spent a lot of time hanging out with Allana, before she moved to Ottawa for school (I would visit her in Ottawa that coming winter, and move to Ottawa -- as planned for several years -- the following year). In July, I would have had a crush still on T, a high school friend whom I hadn't seen in a year, but encountered at grad night and hung out with at the grad party. He'd had a crush on me the year before, but I'd been kind of oblivious -- some things don't change! I remember talking to him on the phone a couple of times after that. (I wonder what he's doing now?) A month later, I would begin designing a website for an indie band based in Toronto, something that ended up shaping the next few years of my life.
2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?
Drink more coffee. No, for real. I was out til 2am, yet answering texts from Tina at 8am, then outside for a walk with Pico and just finished playing fetch with him. It's either more sleep, or more coffee.
Finish editing a video and work on some design mocks for a side project in progress.
Continue re-reading the Tao Te Ching (Blakney translation) -- it's been several years since I last read it.
Take Pico for a long walk, then take him to Petsmart so I can get him some more food.
Same thing I do every day, Brain... plan to take over the world. ;) Oh, and maybe stop at Borders.
3) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Get more sleep, probably. ;) Yeah, who am I kidding? I would do a lot of what I do now, since I always need to be doing something. If I have a few days off just to chill, I end up driving myself bonkers if I don't plan things to do! I'd move my family out to California (or at least build them a home they could visit during the winter months, if they didn't want to live out here full-time). Take a few trips I want to take - Australia (Melbourne, Sydney, and the Gold Coast), New Zealand, London, Paris, Greece... Definitely donate to the Humane Society and Animal Rescue groups, and also the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario -- CHEO has held a special place in my heart since j-skool. Help out friends if they need it, and see some of my friends a lot more I'm sure! Start a scholarship fund at my former high school. Think about what I could contribute to the world, not just monetarily, but what that monetary backing would allow me to instrument and move forward. So many possibilities.
Hey there Delilah Jenn-a-lala, what's it like in New York City California, you're a three thousand miles away, but girl tonight...
The title isn't really related to anything, that song was just stuck in my head after hearing it on the radio last night. So I changed the wording a bit. And yes, I AM in California. Even the part of California in which I live. My dog can't believe it either.
So aside from friends trying to marry me off on Facebook and inviting themselves to a wedding I didn't know was happening... and criss-crossing the continental US a couple of times... and covering a whole lot of my home state... things are pretty busy! Okay, I'm kidding about the wedding part, but not about the friends inviting themselves to it, or the rest of it. Hey, life's not boring, I'll say that much, which is very much the point. I haven't had a lot of time to be sarcastically introspective about something, which is when I usually come and blog. Is that called behaving like an adult in addition to actually being one, or does that mean I need to clone myself into three people and assign one of us to resume having random encounters or thought patterns that result in highly sarcastic blog material? Your call.
Nah. There ARE stories, actually. Good ones, too, although you might not believe me if I told you. I'll share them some day, when I find out how it all goes.
In the meantime, I'm keeping my eyes and ears open for something I can get all tangential about again!
A couple of updates... there are some new pics in the gallery that I put up last week. I also recently joined a site called Adoptic, which is kind of like a webring but not really. If you have a blog, though, definitely check it out.
Breathe in. Exhale. Wooooooosh. Do you hear that sound? That's me, finally sitting still for just a moment, after two jam-packed months that included 10 planes, 2 road trips, and a house move. Last night I (quite accidentally, actually) got 8 hours of sleep, and miracle of all miracles, woke up much more rested this morning than I've been awhile, which also meant I wasn't Grumpy the Narcoleptic Grouch all day. This is good, I think I'm going to go with it.
I'll be doing my best to stick around home this weekend, continuing to catch up on sleep and some other projects, playing with Pico, 'blading, swimming, all that good stuff. Right now though, it's time to think about winding down for the night, seeing if I can get another decent night's sleep, and off for a busy and hopefully productive day of work before the 4th of July weekend.
