Good Riddance

Goodbye January. Never liked you much.

Today I was bored at work and found the bloggies, which are like the oscars of the blogosphere. Except that I can vote for them. And I did. I knew a few of them but the rest??? the one with the best name got my vote. I know people worked hard on their blogs but anyone who puts the word sass in their blog gets my vote.

Here's a list of things I'm thinking about:
To move or not to move?
Second job?
Buy a Wii?
If you pretend things aren't happening, does that in fact mean they are not happening?
Why doesn't my kitchen have an autoclean button?

Looks like they are going to keep me at work. Which should mean that I will get benefits. Dentist, here I come. As long as I can keep my wisdom teeth. I suspect they are the location of all my super powers.

I'm sleepy.

Have some Who's Line is it Anyways






S.

It's snowing..

Or it was.

Minutes of snow and then clear skies. This is why I do love it here. I forget sometimes.

Sure it's freakin' cold. But the cherry blossoms have already decided to start blooming. Maybe things are looking up.


S.

Office Comrades

Work friends. Is there anything stranger?

You spend most of your time with them. Unlike your other friends, you see them everyday and if they are the slightest bit talkative, you get a play by play of their lives, who they saw the day before, what they had for dinner. But, unless you cross that boundary into outside of work friendship, there is still a boundary. When out and about you feel the incessant need to talk about work.

I like the people I work with. They are young and very Victoria. It seems a naturally thing to go out with them. But once out, I'm not exactly sure how to act.

Last night we went out for Tawny's birthday. Tawny is the girl in the office that sparks conversation about strange things, and makes everyone laugh. So, she was turning a quarter of a century and out we went.

Met up with the others for dinner. We did the normal conversation of work and then food. Then we headed to Tawny's. Immediately upon entering the house, I was struck by how young everyone there was. Many of them looked like 1st year university. And seeing as I entered first year Uni in 1998, well.... needless to say I felt old.

So, not really fittin' in the youngins, we were left to our own devices. We played drunk pin the tail on the donkey. No really, there was a pin the tail on the donkey game. When you've been drinking, spinning around blindfolded is not the good idea that it seems. They blindfolded me, spun me and immediately I felt like a bad hangover. You know the kind that taking one step makes the world tilt and hurts every inch of your being. Yup, that's how I felt. Stephen tried to point me in the wrong direction, but I knew where he was standing as he spun me in relation to the board. You can't pull the wool over this girl's eyes.

We went to the karaoke bar next and things proceeded to turn into a gong show. Other people from work showed up and drinks, drinks, drinks. I found a new shot called a King Kong (whiskey and banana liqueur) which I drained and then remember I can't drink whiskey. Bad 19th birthday memories floating around.

I got to a happy, not flailing drunk place and proceeded to watch the office weirdness. See, last time I went out with them, one of the girls (who has a boyfriend) and one of the guys, well... we're not sure what happened. There was touching and then we left them at the bar. Since them, things in the office have been different but none of us have been sure. It's not exactly something you can ask right? Hey... you cheating on your boyfriend with the guy that sits across from you? No, you can't. But you gossip when they are not in hearing range and you give the other coworkers meaningful looks.

Well, I'm pretty sure we don't need to think anymore. It's moved from "think" to "know" last night. They both got hammered and forgot the protocols of having an office affair that no one is supposed to about. They weren't making out, but they were definitely touching each other like, well, people who are used to touching each other are.

What are you supposed to do? Pretend you don't see it? Acknowledge their "coupleness" and get on with it? See, with my other friends, if they were doing this kind of shit, I would call them on it. But work friends... awkward.

Monday should be fun.
S.

Yummy

January is typically a bad month for me. I have no idea why. Usually, January is pegged as the month of new beginnings. All I tend to feel is weighted down by stagnation and boredom. Yes, stagnation and boredom. Happy freakin’ New Year.

I am currently suffering badly from my disease – traveleritis. My symptoms include: staring out the window for large periods at a time, complete and utter boredom at work, wandering about town gaping at things like a tourist, and basically dissatisfaction with things in general.

I am trying to combat this disease with the best thing possible … activity. Yes, I have a tendency to hermit in my apartment but I’m trying to be good. I’ve signed up for classes.

Last Wednesday, I finally hauled my ass out of my apartment and went to my first Flamenco class. I’ve been thinking about it since I came home and voila, six months later I go. Timely.

It turns out Flamenco is super fun. All hips moving in circles, feet stomping and hands twirling in rhythmic motion. Fun. I’m not very good, but then again, I can’t expect to be good after one class right? At one point the teacher demonstrated a particular move that involves stepping forward with a very emphasized hip movement and arms overhead in a very Spanish flourish. “Come on girls, doesn’t that movement feel yummy?”

And you know what? It did. Yummy.
S.

Taking Stock

It's amazing how a group of complete strangers can give you a jump start on life.

In November, I went to the Young Women's Leadership Conference put on by the YWCA. It was excellent and worth the hundred bucks. Between the break out sessions on owning your own business and volunteering abroad, there was small talks about peer mentoring. Rather than having a mentor/mentee relationship, peer mentoring is about a group of people who are in somewhat similar stages of life and get together to talk about goals and how to achieve them in a supporting way. Seeing as I'm somewhat in a period of transition myself, I figured why not.

Went to the meeting the next week, met some women and now I have a mentoring group. We met 6 weeks ago to discuss what we wanted out of the group and set this week as the week we would set our goals.

It was with a little uneasiness that I walked up to Melinda's apartment on Wednesday. I'm shy and take a long time to warm up to people. I mean, the vast majority of my closest friends are from high school and that was 10 years ago. How on earth could I be frank with people I had only seen a couple times before? Well, the truth is, you can be more frank. I don't really care what these people think of me. I don't really want to be the greatest of friends with them. I want to give my goals, have constructive feedback and monitoring and I want to do the same thing for them. I don't tell all my goals to my friends because you get judgement about the goal or they will let you off if you slack. Friends can be selfish too. I asked a friend recently if I should go back to school or move to Ethiopia. She decided that I should go back to school because then I'd be around. And seeing as I'm always around myself, I figured she meant around her. Helpful.

So, I have set my goals. I just have to follow through with them. And I have a feeling I will, because these women will definitely call me to task if I don't. Which is good because I don't call myself to task, so I need someone who will do it.

The next night my mom, mom's friend, sister, sister's boyfriend and I went to see Michael Buble. Hello, crooner. I sat with Diana because Nadine and Arne had floor seats and my mom got to sit in the player's box (it was at a hockey rink) because she had recently fallen and tore the cartilage in her knee. So, my mom's friend and I sat, enjoyed, laughed (Buble is freakin' funny) and made fun of the lady behind us. You know the people who have conversations with the people on stage? Yeah, Michael would say something and she would reply like there wasn't a thousand people between her and the stage. Other than her, it was one of the best concerts I've ever been too. Got to love a hometown boy who sings about the Canucks during his scat session.

Today I went out for brunch with Jason and now am writing this, while the boys play WoW. Keeping busy is nice.

S.

Veggie Anniversary

“I point out that a live cow makes a lion salivate, whereas a human just wants to say "moo" and see if the cow responds.” Scott Adams.

The 7th marked not only my sister’s 25th birthday, but our 5 year anniversary from the day when we stopped eating meat. It’s amazing how something I figured would only last a week has stretched out this long.

Let me go back. The year was 2003. I was at University, learning the ins and outs of anthropology, the study of people in all times and places. In Nutritional Anthropology, I learned that people all over the world could have food, if we would just stop feeding it to the cows. I learned about how the raising of cattle leads to desertification, and the destruction of the rainforests.

Oh hell, let me just quote wikipedia.
Some of the concerns are the large amounts of fossil fuel and water resources consumed by intensive animal farming and the consequent emissions of harmful gases and chemicals. Animal agriculture has been pointed out as one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases — responsible for 18% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalents. By comparison, all transportation emits 13.5% of the CO2. Animal farming produces 65% of human-related nitrous oxide (which has 296 times the global warming potential of CO2) and 37% of all human-induced methane (which is 23 times as warming as CO2). It is also accused of generating 64% of the ammonia, which contributes to acid rain and acidification of ecosystems [11]. The habitat for wildlife provided by large industrial monoculture farms is very poor, and modern industrial agriculture has been considered a threat to biodiversity compared with farming practices such as organic farming, permaculture, arable, pastoral, and rainfed agriculture.
Animals fed on grain, and those that rely on grazing need far more water than grain crops. According to the USDA, growing the crops necessary to feed farmed animals requires nearly half of the United States' water supply and 80% of its agricultural land. Additionally, animals raised for food in the U.S. consume 90% of the soy crop, 80% of the corn crop, and a total of 70% of its grain.
When tracking food animal production from the feed trough to consumption, the inefficiencies of meat, milk and egg production range from 4:1 up to 54:1 energy input to protein output ratio. As it was published, "U.S. could feed 800 million people with grain that livestock eat, Cornell ecologist advises animal scientists Future water and energy shortages predicted to change face of American agriculture" [74] To produce animal based food seems to be, according to these studies, typically much less efficient than the harvesting of grains, vegetables, legumes, seeds and fruits. Exception is made of animals that are grazed rather than fed, especially those grazed on land that could not be used for other purposes.
According to the theory of Trophic dynamics, it requires 10 times as many crops to feed animals being bred for meat production as it would to feed the same number of people on a vegetarian diet. Currently, 70% of all the wheat, corn and other grain produced is fed to farmed animals.

It’s hard to study about Kwashiorkor, look at poor children with their distended bellies and not wonder why food is being given to cows. Don’t get me wrong. I like cows. I like to moo at them. But given the horrible conditions of the meat industry in the developed world, it really doesn’t make much sense.

So, this is what I was learning about. Then, my little sister (who is also studying anthropology) annouced that she was becoming a vegetarian, first by giving up red meat, followed 6 months later by giving up poultry, I figured “why not” and dove right in.

I gave myself a week.

In July of 2003, I hadn’t missed red meat in the slightest. Out went poultry. Thought I would miss it. Didn’t.

Somehow I managed to stay a vegetarian despite living and traveling abroad. Yes, you would think Japan would be good for a vegetarian but they sure do like their beef.

Technically, I suppose I’m a pescatarian, not a vegetarian because I do eat seafood. Whatever. It’s a state of mind.

I don’t care if you aren’t a vegetarian. I just wish people would think before they eat, and realize that meat isn’t a right, it’s a privlege. And it’s bad for the heart and colon to eat it too often.

The one thing I’ve learned from all this, is simple. If you are stubborn about your beliefs, you will make them happen. Resolutions are easy to stick to if they are tied to something you believe in.

Happy Anniversary to Me.

S.

Annoyed

How is that someone you thought you knew so well, could annoy you so much with selfishness.

Argh.

I'm pissy and even though I don't know what it is I was rude about, I'm not sorry.

S.

Happy New Year

Ah, the holidays. Time for family, whether you like it or not.

I dislike this time of year. Why does there have to be a "time for family"? Shouldn't that be all year? Bah.

Anyways, went up to my mom's for the day. As I don't do the gift thing anymore, it was mostly for the cookies. Yes. Cookies. It is our tradition to decorate Christmas cookies. I have given up the presents, the tree, the songs, but gawd damn it, I'm not giving up my cookies. See where my priorities lie?

So, we woke up Christmas morning and decorated cookies. We have competitions to see who can decorate the best one. My sister takes this to mean the tackiest cookie. She sure is good at it. I've never seen gingerbread people with such luscious lips. This year she did the family.



Yes, my mom is the one with the big titties. Nadine gave me a sled, which apparently is the same thing as my lovely scooter in Greece. Why I'm wearing red hot pants is beyond me. Apparently my cookie self has more self esteem and less fashion sense than I do.

Dinner saw me in a house with a family that I didn't know and really, had nothing to say to. Nadine and Arne had left to go to Arne's family. That left me with my mom, Denis and Denis' family. Have you ever felt a conversation to be so mundane and uninteresting that you just can't bring yourself to even participate? Yeah. Fun times.

So, now the "holidays" are over. New Years has come and gone. I did nothing. No, it's not sad. After doing the same thing last year (because I was too tired, having come back from Thailand that day), I realized that it's just a day that is blown out of proportion. Not worth it.

2007 was a good year. Full of travel and personal growth. 2008 doesn't look promising so I need to get off my ass and do something about it. That's my New Year's resolution. And damn it, I will keep it.

S.