Me, me, me

It's blowin' a gale outside, and the snow is actually sticking to the ground for the first time this year. It's nice and cozy inside and I'm enjoying my Saturday.

Went to a parent-teacher interview on Thursday, and came away feeling so happy and proud. It's one thing to know that your child is wonderful, but it's quite a feeling to hear praise for her from her teacher. Apart from all the regular "she's doing great, she's so great" stuff, he gave me a little bonus by telling me that last year, when he saw my daughter in her Kindergarten class he told her K teacher "I would like to have her in my class next year." How about that? That's the kind of thing a parent can live on for quite a while.

I know it's probably unseemly to brag about your kids on your blog, but I hope you'll indulge this little moment. Hey, at least I'm not posting pictures of them!

Here's a mini-movie review for y'all:

Solaris, starring George Clooney, directed by Steven Soderbergh from the Stanislaw Lem novel:

What the...? Wha? Oooh...
Wha?

Here I am!

How I wish that I had time to write a fulsome posting on my weekend, and please you, gentle readers, with random thoughts and philosophical ramblings. However, I am still drowning at work and promise to make it up to you with sickening overkill later in the week.

For now I will say only this: I went and saw two -- count 'em -- two! movies on the weekend. It's a record! Master and Commander is excellent for those who like high-seas adventure (I do) and Russell Crowe (do I!). Brother Bear is a nice movie that very young children can enjoy. I liked its message and the light touch with which it was delivered. It can wait for video, though.

Back to real work!

Two-minute poetry!

Oh November, sad and grey
Just how long do you plan to stay?
It's been six weeks and you're still around,
spreading rotting-leaf banana peels on the ground.

Where are snowflakes, where are blue skies?
Shit, I'd even rewind to witches and pumpkin pies
To get beyond, or before, this drear
My very least favourite time of year.

Except March. March sucks.

Oh, I have been a bad blogger.

The combination of sickness, overwork, lack of sleep and those pesky little family and household responsibilities has kept me from my appointed posting.

My weekend was busy, and I was pretty damn sick, but I got to spend lots of time with my kids and my husband, and that made everything juuust fine. We managed to get out and buy ourselves some hats and mitts and scarves, and we're all kitted out until we lose all the newly-bought items, which should take about a week to ten days.

I just cancelled plans to take my daughter to a classical music concert on Thursday night. It sounds like it's going to be great, "The carnival of the animals" and "Peter and the wolf", with narration by (semi-) celebs. Why did I cancel? Well, I'm still sick, and super-busy at work, and D. has school Thursday night and the little one wasn't going to come with us, so we would have had to hire a sitter, and the whole thing takes place past bedtime on a school night, and there's a big reception that I would have a hard time getting away from... so I think I'm just gonna take a pass. I know it's wimpy, and if I weren't sick I'd say it's worth it, but....feh. Fortunately I'm in a position to get tickets to these sorts of things quite often, but they are not so frequently kid-friendly.


I'm looking forward to some good TV this week on PBS, like a documentary on the effect of JFK's assassination on the press in America (Wednesday night). I fear I am becoming a couch-potato, but I'm so spent by the evening that reading or watching TV is about all I can manage these days. I hope that I'll have more energy in the coming weeks and maybe I'll start up my evening walks again. I love walking on winter evenings. I always seem to start a new regimen of walking or running when the snow comes. I am drawn outdoors.

On a somewhat unrelated topic: I watched the "Matrix Reloaded" on the weekend. I hope to write a post in which I will compare it to "The Temple of Doom", second in the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" trilogy. This is not a compliment, in case you've forgotten that movie. At the risk of repeating what every Matrix geek has already said, like, six months ago: Reloaded blows.

Ex-squeeze me

So swamped. Everything's pouring in here at work and I'm buried in the mire.

I'm also sick, which doesn't help. Usually my body holds off on these things until the big push is over.

So no big post today, but here's a wee update: the weather is warm and all is well.

Hope you're okay too.

Remembrance Day

This day is meaningful to me. I hope we will keep it for a long time.

I often think, not just on remembrance day, about what the experience of war must be like. I've read so many books and heard so many first-hand accounts, but I wonder -- what would it feel like? Trench warfare with its cold and mud and the stink of blood and rotting flesh. The hunger and thirst and wet and the sores and blisters, and that's before you fight and get injured or see your friends blown to bits beside you.

It's almost unimaginable to people who are safe and warm and well-fed among their loved ones. But life is all of that terrible stuff too. All of that is real and when you're in it, maybe this comfort and normal life is unimaginable after awhile.

Someone very close to me lost his father in the war when he was just a baby. His dad went off to war and never came back, and that loss, or absence, has stayed with this friend all of his life. D's father was in WWII, but thankfully wasn't hurt. Apart from those second-hand experiences, war hasn't touched my life, but I wonder if it might someday. I wonder if there will be another war so big that Canadians will bring in conscription and regular kids will have to go off and fight. I don't think it's an impossibilty. Not at all.

So remembrance day isn't only about remembering, as any veteran will tell you. It's about not forgetting; it's a warning. And it's necessary.

Report on the Weekend

This weekend was a bit hectic, but I feel (finally) like I'm getting some energy back, so I don't mind so much.

Friday night was our book club meeting. We were missing one member, but enjoyed a good chat over pecan coffee cake, pecan cookies, cheese and crackers and chai. Deeelicious.

The book was good, but everyone agreed that it was not great. Discussion, when not of particular short stories, centred around: male characters, depiction of the contemporary south, depth vs. 'quirky" characterizations, and the short story form and Singleton's success with it.

We are reading Therapy by David Lodge for our next meeting. Light fare for the Christmas season.

Oh! Friday night a house on our street caught on fire and burned for a long time. I went out on the street at 2 am and it was a terrible sight. The strange thing is that that same house was burned out when we moved in two years ago! The woman who lives there got out okay. The word on our street is that she fell asleep smoking -- again -- and the house's condition would seem to bear that out. It looks like the fire started in an upstairs bedroom.

Saturday we went to the suburbs to visit my parents. This is always more than I want it to be, because my parents are divorced and a trip out there means I have to try and see both in one afternoon. But it was nice. We took my dad out to lunch and then went to my mom's and sat by the fire and talked. The highlight of the day was when my mom played an old cassette of my grandfather reading some of his stories. It was as if he was right there in the room, in a way. He died when I was still young, and I rarely saw him anyway because he lived in England, but I loved him and and he made a great impression on me. I'm proud that he was my grandfather.

Sunday we did a "big clean" in our house. I won't bore you with the gory details, but it feels good to clean, man. I wish I'd been able to accomplish more.

Panic in NDG

So this morning when D. took my daughter to the bus stop, one of the mothers there was telling everyone that there had been an attempted abduction at a nearby (like three blocks away) park two days ago.

As most of you know, this follows reports of attempted abductions in several parts of the city over the past four weeks or so. In each case (which the police say are not all related), the children are between 9 and 11 and in each case they got away. In one case, it was really just a guy asking a kid to "help him with his cat", but the kid didn't go anywhere near him.

Now, I'm not the type to panic about this kind of thing, and I'm finding this whole thing quite bizarre. Does media coverage of these cases mean that people are reporting things they might no otherwise report? Or is there some guy or group of guys going around trying to abduct kids, but not succeeding because kids are so so brave and savvy? Or are they just not really trying to abduct them, but to scare them?

My first reaction when I heard what this other mother said was "mmm, panic rumour". I wanted to verify whether it was really true. I work in a place where we can look into this sort of thing, so I'll let you know if I find anything out.
But why didn't I freak out? This park is so close!

Well, I guess I feel like my kids are safe, because we are always with them. Also I consciously try to resist fear and rumour in these cases, because it's just too easy to think that the world is a dangerous place when everything in my experience says it's actually quite a good, safe-ish place.

Now, I know for a fact that there are perverts out there. I have personally surveyed all my friends and colleagues and about 8 out of 10 people have had a childhood experience of someone touching them inappropriately or exposing himself or whatever. I find this fascinating. We've all had these experiences, but most of us were not traumatized and pretty much took it in stride.

In my case, I was very frightened by one of my older sister's (adult) friends who tried to french kiss me when I was nine, but he was trying to force me and it was about to become violent, I'm sure, when I started bawling and jumped out of the car. He was driving me home from babysitting at my sister's. I was pretty freaked out by that experience, and remember everything about it today.

The world is definitely a weird place. And we have to look out for children, obviously, because we're bigger than they are. But I will be very curious to see what happens with these attempted abductions, and whether the police will come up with anything, or whether it will all "blow over" after awhile.

Book Club Update

Our next meeting, to discuss The Half-Mammals of Dixie by George Singleton, will be this Friday, November 7th.

Let's have goodies this time, girls. I'm'a bring a big piece o' cheeeeese.

Ciao, Bella

My daughter starts Italian lessons this week.

Her school offers twice-weekly Italian lessons after school for free every year, courtesy of the local Italian-Canadian association.

Italian is a language I have always wanted to learn. For some strange reason I've always felt as though I would live in Italy some day. I don't know why; I don't have any Italian blood or any relations living there. I just feel like it's some kind of spiritual home for me. Weird.

I've been to Italy, or passed through at any rate, when I was travelling through Europe. I spent a day in Rome and the sights and sounds of that day are so vivid to me they pop into my mind on a surprisingly regular basis. I loved Rome, and all my impressions of Italy, even the lecherous men. Well, maybe not the one we woke up to in our train car. He was just suddenly there -- lying beside my friend with his leg over hers!

Well, I hope my daughter likes learning Italian. If she wants to, she can do it every year until Grade 6, by which time I think she'll have a pretty good command of it. It may help her get into an international school, and it will certainly be an asset, even if we never end up living in Italy. I'll make a point of taking her (and the other two, who will hopefully get lessons too!) there someday, by hook or by crook...

News, sort of


I should probably do this officially, although I think most of my friends and family already know:

*Fanfare* I'm pregnant!! Yaaaaay!!

To answer the FAQs:

I'm about 13 weeks; I'm not nauseous but I've had headaches and dizziness and bone-deep fatigue; I'm very happy; it wasn't "planned" per se, but we knew we wanted to have another baby within the next couple of years and sooner is better for me; I'm showing more than seems fair; The kids know and are very happy; we do need donations of baby goods, clothes, money, whatever you want to give; D. is going to start looking for work in January so let me know if you hear of anything.

So all is good and right with the world. Send happy thoughts, and prayers if you're into that sort of thing.

Report on the Weekend


Good weekend, great halloween night. I kind of crashed on Saturday, after all the work and excitement of halloween. I left work at 3 on Friday to go home and prepare the kids and the house for trick-or-treating. We had a great turnout, and the weather was so beautiful, we could just sit on the steps outside and give out the candy. Only one set of drunken teenagers, which I think is pretty good. I go easy on the drunken teenagers because I was one, and they're harmless, really.

Saturday was, as I say, kind of energyless. I had a hard time dragging my ass around. My daughter's friend came over and I took the three kids to the park. It was fun, but I made the mistake of telling them that I would give a piggyback to anyone who could find me a red leaf. They all found one, of course, and I used up my paltry reserves of energy nickering like a horse and clumping around the park with passengers.

The costume party was a semi-bust. My costume (mummy) didn't work. After all that agonizing, I didn't have enough bandages! I got to the end of my second arm, after having wrapped my head, and ran out. We tried toilet paper -- ripped. Tried paper towels -- looked bad and ripped when I moved. I ended up going as myself, and felt like a real schmo.

On the bright side, everyone else had fabulous costumes. I think my favourite was Doctor Evil. There was no shortage of fun people to admire and chat with. All in all, though, the party was a strangely subdued affair. But maybe that's just me, because I wasn't in the greatest spirits.

On Sunday we took the kids to a play, Hansel and Gretel. They loved it, and we all had a good time and just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. It was a good day to end the weekend, except that I had a splitting headache...but what else is new?

Now on to a full week of work. Whose idea was this full-time work thing anyway?