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Posted by Zoom! on September 23, 2010, at 12:07 pm |
 Reading buddies It looks like I’m going to keep all three of my baby lovebirds: Piccolo, Banjo and Oboe. They’re quite attached to each other now, and to me. And I’m pretty attached to them too: they’re my flock.
I spend at least an hour in their room each day, reading, while they chew on my book or nestle in my hair. Duncan saw one of them on my head yesterday for the very first time (I don’t let him in that room when they’re out of their cage) and his eyes got enormous. He couldn’t believe it.
My original plan was to just keep one and give two away. But you’d be surprised how hard it is to give away adorable, hand-fed, tame baby lovebirds.
Which reminds me. GC’s niece, Tali, was at a birthday party a few months ago. The kids all got loot bags, each of which contained, in addition to the usual dollar store crap, a live goldfish in a plastic bag of water. The kids were thrilled, but Tali’s mother was not. Instead of picking up her kid from the party and going home, like she planned, she had to pick up her kid and go spend $40 at the pet store, buying it a bowl and food and whatever else it needed.
What kind of person puts live animals in children’s loot bags?? I wouldn’t be surprised if half those poor fish died within the first 24 hours.
 Triple Trouble Anyway. I admit that I briefly considered using the loot bag method to foist my lovebirds off on unsuspecting friends. I even considered giving them to Tali’s parents as a surprise 19th anniversary gift.
But I didn’t, and I have to say I’m very happy they’re still mine, even though Banjo did chew through my necklace yesterday while Oboe ate my book and Piccolo bit the inside of my nose.
Posted by Zoom! on September 22, 2010, at 9:50 am |
Saturday I went out for breakfast at Summerhayes with some of the local bloggers. I finally got to meet Finola and Trashy. Two of the bloggers at breakfast are running for office in the upcoming municipal elections – Julia Ringma for City Councillor in College Ward, and Trashy for school board in Alta Vista. (Julia, you might remember, was the one who introduced GC and me. If I lived in her ward, I would vote for her for that reason alone.) (There are other good reasons to vote for her too; that one’s just my personal favourite.)
There was a bit of a mix-up with the breakfast bills, and I ended up pocketing Finola’s credit card. Finola was looking through her wallet and purse and pockets, but I had it the whole time. I even looked in my wallet for it, but didn’t see it because it looked just like mine. I was thinking later how I might have subsequently used it without ever noticing it wasn’t mine, because you have to tilt a credit card just so to read anything on it, and how often do you check the name on your card? Every time I used my card for the next few days, I kept thinking how it could have been Finola’s card and I wouldn’t have realized it until I got arrested. Anyway. Finola was lovely and gracious and she writes an excellent blog.
 After breakfast GC and I went on the West End Studio Tour. On the way there we noticed two George Guirguis election signs, at houses side by side. The signs looked pretty fancy and expensive, but I guess it’s not that big a deal if you only have to buy a handful of signs. (By the way, is he allowed to use the Government of Canada logo on his signs?)
We decided to go knock on those doors and ask the people why they were voting for Gorgeous George, just for fun. We thought it might make for an interesting conversation.
Nobody was home at the first house. A yappy dog and a teenage boy in a bathrobe answered the second door. The boy had no clue about the sign or the candidate. He said his parents might know something, but they weren’t home. Oh well. (By the way, Gorgeous George has 115 videos on Youtube now. Pretty much all videos of him doing ordinary stuff, set to sappy music.) (Speaking of fringe candidates, here’s David Reevely’s post about Barkley Pollock, which was discussed at the Bloggers’ Breakfast.)
 The West End artists tour was great. We only managed to cover about half of it, but it’s on again this weekend, so we might do the rest. Of particular interest, among the stuff we saw so far: Garrie Bea Joyce, Janet Bell, Alice Hinther, and Rob Huntley, who does arial photography by flying a kite with a remote-control camera attached to it.
In other news, I passed the government’s Situational Judgment Test! I got 73 out of 102. Not great, but 55 is a pass. Phew. And I did very well on the English writing test, so I guess I’m in the CRA Writer pool now. I’m not sure what happens next – probably I just wait and maybe someday they’ll call me for an interview?
In other other news: Fall is here and with it comes this inexplicable urge to knit. First I’m going to finish GC’s socks (which are now a group project, as I’ve enlisted the help of three different knitters so far – Grace, Merle and Carmen – in bailing me out of jams on these socks).
Last but not least, I had another mammogram and saw the oncologist last week, and all is well on that front.
Posted by Zoom! on September 21, 2010, at 9:06 am |
These three images, from left to right, are a photograph of a woman now, a projection of how she could look in 10 years if she exercises, and a projection of how she could look in 10 years if she doesn’t exercise. Apparently these images are supposed to help motivate her to exercise.
I stared at those pictures for a couple of minutes last night, and if I were her, I wouldn’t bother exercising.
Or what about this guy? These are projections of him five years down the road, with and without exercise. I’d say five years are kinder to him than they are to me, but exercise doesn’t seem to make any difference.
These pictures – showing a 43-year-old woman now and 20 years down the road, with and without exercise – probably devastated her.
Frankly, I don’t think this technique is going to work to motivate people to exercise. All they’re going to see is how much older they’re going to look in 10 or 20 years, no matter what they do. (Which isn’t to say they shouldn’t exercise, of course – there are lots of good reasons to exercise, but staving off the ravages of time doesn’t appear to be one of them.)
Anyway. I’ve decided I definitely don’t need to see any computer-aged photographs of myself.
Posted by Zoom! on September 20, 2010, at 9:31 am |
The Great Canadian Theatre Company (GCTC) invited GC and me to another opening last week. The List is a one-woman play, about 75 minutes in length, about two mothers who are neighbours in a rural community. One of them is dead.
“I didn’t lay a finger on her,†the first woman says. Nor did she lift a finger to help her. And thus begins a story which explores the connections and the separations, the obligations and the guilt that so often frame the lives of women.
If I had to pick one word to describe The List, it would be monochromatic. The set, the emotional landscape, the language, the tone – everything is monochromatic. Some might find this boring, but I think it echoes the context of the play.
The woman telling the story is trapped in motherhood, depression, monotony, to-do lists, and guilt. The other woman, Caroline, despite her five children and the laundry hamper that is the focal point of her livingroom, seems less burdened by the stultifying routines of motherhood. She does not keep lists. She does not keep her house or her children clean. She just lives, without any apparent structure or rules. Her children draw on the walls.
They have drifted into friendship because of their shared isolation within their rural community. Had they lived in the city, they probably would not have chosen each other for friends. Sometimes the first woman doesn’t answer the door when the second woman and her brood came to visit. Especially on Wednesdays, when her own children are in daycare. She wants to savour her time alone; she is self-indulgent on Wednesdays.
Caroline’s death provokes intense feelings of guilt in the first woman, because she has repeatedly neglected to do the one thing that was asked of her. Instead of doing it, she kept putting it on her To-Do list and not doing it.
The last fifteen minutes or so of the play are considerably more intense and dramatic than the first hour.
I liked this play. I found myself remembering that sense of isolation as a young mother. I wasn’t living in a rural community, but I was the first of my friends and family to have a baby. My friends were all still partying. I lived downtown, where it seemed nobody had babies. All the other mothers lived somewhere else, and I didn’t know them. The Internet didn’t exist yet, so I couldn’t forge online friendships. And the routines of motherhood were pretty monotonous. Endless diapers and feedings and laundry and blah blah blah.
But I remember too that each day was punctuated by little bursts of joy, as my son smiled at me or did something new or just looked adorable. Watching him grow from newborn to baby to toddler was like watching the evolution of the species, as he mastered his opposable thumb and learned to walk upright and acquired language. I often felt like I was seeing everything for the first time, through his eyes. There was nowhere else I wanted to be, nothing else I wanted to be doing.
Anyway. This play is about motherhood, ambivalence and guilt, which might bore some people, but not me. Maybe because I’ve been there.
If you do go see it, please let me know what you think.
Posted by Zoom! on September 17, 2010, at 9:29 am |
Guess where I took this picture:
Two for Woodsy:
This is true:
Have a good weekend:
Posted by Zoom! on September 16, 2010, at 9:03 am |
I read the other day – I don’t remember where – that when you think you’re about to die, you panic, but when you know you’re about to die, you become very serene.
I’ve thought I was on the brink of death three times in my life. The first time was when I choked on a peach pit when I was nine years old. The second time was when a bull decided to kill me when I was eleven. And the third time I was 17 and hitch-hiking alone through Nova Scotia and some guy out of Deliverance picked me up and then refused to let me go. (He kept saying things like “Got any hair on your monkey?” and “Had any skin since you left home?” When he turned down a dirt road and started unbuckling his belt I figured he was going to rape and murder me and drag my body into the woods.)
But, I guess before any sense of certainty and the accompanying serenity could set in, the peach pit dislodged itself from my throat, my step-father and grandfather rescued me from the bull, and the Deliverance guy pulled over and let me go.
In each case, I was both relieved and traumatized in the aftermath of almost dying. I cried and shook. I realized how quickly, how unexpectedly, how easily life can end. I felt terrifyingly fragile.
Cancer scared the pants off me too, but that was different. Death may have been leering menacingly at me from a distance, but it didn’t have me by the throat yet.
Some people say they’d rather go suddenly, but not me. I want to see it coming. There are things I want to do before I die. Adventures to be had. Loose ends to be tied. Goodbyes to be said. So I guess I’d rather die of cancer than choke on a peach pit.
How about you? Do you ever think about how you want to go?
Posted by Zoom! on September 14, 2010, at 10:19 am |
You know what I miss? Apartment hunting. When I was a tenant (which was pretty much my whole life, up until four years ago), I loved apartment-hunting. I wasn’t fond of moving, but I loved apartment-hunting.
There was just something exciting about exploring new places and picturing myself in them. Almost every apartment had something special about it – a little cubby hole pantry under the stairs, an interesting window, a built-in shelf, a big balcony, good light, a coffee shop across the street.
Maybe I’m romanticizing it a bit. It wasn’t all joy and happiness. Some places – especially in the early days when I was very poor – were downright depressing. Dirty, dark, dingy, cramped, and steeped in layers of misery left over from previous tenants. Sometimes, whole buildings and entire neighbourhoods felt depressed and depressing One place I checked out the very first time I went apartment-hunting even had a suicide note pinned to the door.
I’ve said it before that my favourite landlord is the Centretown Citizens of Ottawa Corporation (CCOC). It’s a non-profit, community-based housing organization. I’ve lived in three of their buildings, for a total of nine years. One on Arlington, and two on Rochester Street. The units are always spotless when you move in, and CCOC even gives you flats of flowers every Spring, so you can do a little gardening.
Anyway. CCOC staff have been good to me over the years, even after I was no longer a tenant. Some of them read my blog. One of them even brought me dinners and flowers and wine last year when I was sick.
All this to say, in the interests of full disclosure, that I’m a friend of the CCOC, and vice versa. This post is aimed at helping them get the word out about the Beaver Barracks, their brand-new downtown housing complex, which will be available for its first tenants in November/December. It has tons of sustainable facilities and urban amenities. If you’re lucky enough to be apartment hunting now, you should check it out.
 Beaver Barracks It’s comprised of several buildings downtown at Metcalfe and Argyle, right next to the YM/YWCA and the Museum of Nature. There’s a mix of 160 town houses and apartments.
CCOC has designed the complex to be as green as possible. There’s an underground geothermal system which provides heating/cooling/hot water to all units. Tenants pay a flat fee for energy. They have green roofs, a big organic community rooftop garden for tenants, and ground-level planters.There’s composting and recycling stations, lots of secure bike parking, access to VrtuCars, and some limited parking for cars. Beaver Barracks is both accessible and smoke-free. You can read more about the sustainability measures here.
Rents range from $706 to $1423, but some limited rent subsidies will be available to assist low and moderate income-earners. The application process is outlined here.
Posted by Zoom! on September 13, 2010, at 9:53 am |
I haven’t blogged for a few days, so this is just going to be a little catch-up post.
Here are some of the things I’ve been doing lately:
Reading. A lot. I’ve been a little scattered on the reading front for the past year or two, since I always had half a dozen books on the go, and I found myself frequently having to start books over since I couldn’t remember what was going on. A couple of weeks ago I decided to stop doing that, and focus on just two books at a time. It was a good decision. It made the whole reading process much more efficient and enjoyable. I’ve also resurrected my Good Reads account. (It’s over there in the left sidebar if you’re interested in joining – I’m looking for more GoodReads friends.)
The CAT Walk
 Leaf, by Cynthia O'Brien Yesterday GC and I went on the Centretown Artists Tour. The CAT Walk. We wandered throughout Centretown, visiting artists in their studios. It was a lot of fun. It’s not just about seeing their art, but also about seeing their homes. Artists are creative by nature, and they create creative spaces. I love Meaghan Haughian’s place, and her art, so we started there. Her place inspires me to start creating again.
I bought something on the tour – a pottery leaf from Cynthia O’Brien. It was only $2!
 At Tom Evans’ place we were pleasantly surprised to discover that photographs of GC and me were part of his exhibit. Last year on the tour, he invited people to try on the lumberjack jackets and let him photograph them. A number of those photos became part of this year’s exhibit, including ours.
Montreal
 Unusual house - view from the back We went to Montreal on Saturday, just for the day, to visit GC’s family. We helped move some furniture from GC’s brother’s house to his parents’ house. During that little excursion I saw this very strange house that didn’t quite look like a house. GC said he remembered when it was built, back in the 70s, and everybody hated it. There were rumours that it had its own bowling alley. We took pictures of it, and looked it up on the internet after we got home.
 The front door It’s currently for sale – all 9,000 square feet of it. No bowling lane, but there’s a huge indoor pool. Anyway. For $3.1 million, I think it oughta have a better MLS listing with better pictures.
Job Hunting
I got my English writing test results back for that government job. I got 106 out of 112 – yay me! I should find out in a couple of weeks if I passed the situational judgment test – if so, then I advance, I guess, to the next level of getting a government job. Meanwhile, there’s a non-governmental job that I’m applying for today that sounds really good. If you’ve ever been job-hunting, you know how rarely the ideal job comes floating by. Fingers crossed.
Mystery event
Anybody want to hazard a guess, based on these three photos, as to which event we attended?
 Mystery Photo #1 
Posted by Zoom! on September 8, 2010, at 2:02 pm |
I took the rescheduled Situational Judgment Test for that government job this morning.
I’m not allowed to tell anyone the questions. But let’s just say it’s comprised of 51 hypothetical work-related scenarios (problems, interpersonal conflicts, ethical dilemmas, hierarchical conundrums, and so on), and for each of these you have to select the most effective solution and the least effective solution from a set of five proposed solutions.
I can tell you the example question. It goes something like this:
One of your co-workers gets many more letters of commendation for good customer service than you do. Your manager is always praising her for this. One day you overhear her on the phone with a client, and she says “If you like my customer service, you can contact my manager and let him know.”
Choose the MOST effective solution and the LEAST effective solution from the following alternatives.
a) Tell your co-worker this is unprofessional and inappropriate conduct
b) Inform your manager
c) Do nothing
d) Start suggesting to your clients that they contact your boss to praise your customer service
e) Tell your co-worker that if she doesn’t stop doing this, you’ll inform your manager.
What do you think? What’s the best and worst answer?
I found the test difficult. In very few of the scenarios was it obvious to me what the most and least effective solutions were. Sometimes they all seemed like good solutions; sometimes they all seemed like bad solutions. Usually at least two answers could have been right. Rarely was it clear cut.
I went through the test a second time, and changed a lot of my answers, which is never a good sign.
On my way home it occurred to me that it’s all about working within hierarchies – what do you do in a scenario involving a peer, a team leader, a supervisor, a manager, a manager’s manager? What should you handle on your own, and when should you go over someone’s head?
Where I worked for the past 18 years, we had plenty of managers, but we weren’t very hierarchical, because for the most part they didn’t really manage us. They managed projects and information and money (or lack thereof) and so on. But they didn’t really manage people. When they did, it tended to be more of an intuitive, flying-by-the-seat-of-their-pants sort of thing. Generally they got to be managers by being good at something else; they got promoted to management but didn’t receive any management training. Mostly they just muddled through and did their best. And mostly we just managed ourselves. So I really have no idea what the “right” answers are to those kinds of questions.
As I read through all these scenarios, I felt a sense of dread creeping through me. Dread of office politics. Dread of working anywhere where there’s black and white answers to grey questions, and where people go around telling each other their behaviour is inappropriate or going over their heads and so on.
Me, I’m pretty laid back. I mostly just shrug things off, either because it’s none of my business, or I don’t see it as a problem, or it’s just a little problem and not worth the confrontation, or I’m chicken, or whatever. “Do nothing” was an option in many of the scenarios, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t the right answer, so I didn’t pick it. In other words, I didn’t pick what I would have done in real life; I picked what I thought the government would think I should hypothetically do.
I don’t know if that was a good strategy or not…I should find out in a few weeks.
Posted by Zoom! on September 7, 2010, at 10:10 am |
I’ve participated in Run for the Cure a couple of times in the past, but this will be my first time as a breast cancer survivor. (And I’m going to have to walk for the cure this time, because of my back problems.)
The run (or in my case, walk) takes place on October 3rd. I’m on Laurie Kingston‘s team, No Pink For Profit. It’s a very impressive team comprised of more than 30 women, several of whom I’ve been wanting to meet.
The only part I’m not looking forward to is fundraising, because I’m an abysmal fundraiser. If any of you would like to sponsor me, please visit my fundraising page. Anything you can do to help me reach my goal of $150 will make me very happy*. You’ll get a tax receipt and you will save me the embarrassment of going door to door asking total strangers to sponsor me.
Thank you.
*However, the opposite is not true: You won’t make me unhappy if you don’t sponsor me.
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