oh yes friends.

I have 2 more weeks of work left until maternity leave, and I've just come through a very busy period. Although my last 2 weeks will continue to be fairly intense at work, there will be a lot of things for them to remember me by when I'm gone. Just kidding. But it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do for programming and the timing of this pregnancy/ the opening of the facility were not favourable conditions for PRODUCTIVITY, so I had to do SOMETHING before I left. 

Also this past 6ish months I was part of organizing a western Canadian/ Northern tour of an exhibition of Palestinian children's art done in an art therapy program. The opening was last night, reasonably well attended, featuring one of the markers of success of such a niche (I won't say FRINGE) event - some people I didn't know personally attended, more than one group!

I also had an exam for a year long pre-19th century Romantic/Gothic literature earlier in the week, aaaaaaand the Friday before was a dance party a fundraiser for Palestine that I helped with and attended. I had an essay due that day too. I 

And now to complete the substantial remaining house rearrangement pre-baby, but first, a nap. I think I need to jettison a few more (imagined/ self-inflicted) responsibilities before the new bundle of joy/ demands arrives. 

Also, some writing.

10) NOT WHAT prairiecity suggested, GAWD! Instead, read lots of good books

11) redo my room to make a shared room for 2 kids/ playroom (SIGH, this is a bit sad) but we've decided to give up our large, lovely upstairs room to make a shared room/playroom for both kids. I am getting started on this right away, since it actually will be a huge project, but acceptance will be the first step. This will return to being MY room as soon as those stinkers don't want to live together any more, so around the teen years when they will prefer to be in the 2 smaller bedrooms downstairs so that they can sneak out to meet their robot boyfriends and girlfriends and do cyberdrugs once I've gone to bed at 9 p.m.

But I am poring over design I especially want to make a couple of pieces of the furniture and sew some items (simple things like tiny kids' chairs, maybe a little play tent, and lots of big floor cushions). I am going to try to use up a bunch of my fabric stash too! It should actually be fun, it's a neat space with low ceilings, I think it could be so cute.

Anyway, this doesn't change my previous #6 resolution, my small new downstairs room also needs new room darkening curtains.

12) Eat only delicious food that I enjoy, and try to make some of it sustainable and local.

I tend to make lists of 100 resolutions that are quantified, like, do yoga for 200 hours or something, and even if I do a lot of yoga, I'm really not the type to time or record that kind of thing. So I'm going to keep it simple this year, be less focused on my failings and more focused on putting things I like into my life. Also, trying to put in some things that might be reasonable considering there will be a new baby in the house in late April/ early May, so I give you:

1) finish text for alleged graphic novel
2) set up sewing area in the basement
3) finish owl quilt
4) complete Romantic era lit course without asking for any more extensions (haha - I got an open-ended extension for my first paper and handed it in a full 2 months late, stupid, because it make a 2000 word paper last ALL TERM for NO REASON. Annoying for all involved. I am trying not to include any resolutions I can't control though, so this doesn't count if I have to defer the exam because I was giving birth.)
5) go see some live flamenco dancing
6) make room-darkening curtains for my bedroom.
7) start new quilt
8) get outside often
9) go to Brazil (my sister will be there for 6 months of 2012ish)

imma try this www.blogforbettersewing.com/2010/08/blog-for-better-sewing-sew-along.html

mmmmmmmmmm-HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmm

I'm just home from talking on the crisis phones. I had a good shift, but I got into the caffeine a little and now I'm not sleepy even though it's already tomorrow (PAST MIDNIGHT OMG!).

I still don't have a job, but I don't really want one. However I am still looking because I think I will eventually want one. I have been doing a lot of writing, or rather editing, according to a bunch of arbitrary deadlines,* in a summer chapter exchange, so that's good. I think I am getting where I want to be, although I might need to be harsher. And there will be rewriting, OH YES.

I'm also trying to write a script for a graphic novel. This is tragicomedically behind an arbitrary deadline, expired years ago, set for me by a graphic novel enthusiast, who keeps trying to collect.


*I've blown about half the deadlines, but I'm almost caught up now!

Having a baby has made me process my upbringing in a whole new way. Please allow me to resent all your failings all over again, FAMILY. Also cabin policy for my unit: only 1 night if everyone's there, ideally never, and never more than 4 nights with any one of them. But I think Frenchie and I might take over the joint for a week and invite friends out.

Other than that, things are great. I still don't have a new job, but I am being picky, and REALLY - who wants to WORK? I think I'm going to go visit the nice lady at the EI office tomorrow. Do I want to be a 911 operator? I tend to be good at irregular high-stress positions that cause you to eat donuts and lose your faith in humanity, my history has shown.

I am feeling very creative this spring with the fabric arts, although I have mainly been hemming a steady stream of baggy, shapeless beige pants belonging to my grandparents. I have my pride, I make grandma some lovely, perfectly straight, even, blind stitched hems. But then they give me bomb cake and that causes productivity. But my wardrobe could use a kick in the figurative face, so hopefully that's the last of it. Also the people keep multiplying. I have baby sewing to do.

Why does wearing a "Glamour Mom" brand nursing tank top or a "Diva" brand menstrual cup, even simultaneously, not make one feel like a glamorous diva in any way?

Hello,
I am a regular listener in the mornings, and was happy to hear the new feature, laugh of the day, introduced yesterday. However, the actual piece was far from funny, but rather a really tired stereotype of women as shrew/ men as hapless amiable man-baby pawns in hetero-normative relationships.

If this is as funny as you can be, don't bother. Stick to your formula of information mixed with banter, and avoid perpetuating a backlash against women having any agency or power in society disguised as humour.

Sincerely,
Erin Bocks

632 St. Jean Baptiste Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R2H 2Y1

April 21st, 2010

Margaret Atwood
c/o McClelland & Stewart
75 Sherbourne St., 5th Floor
Toronto, ON
M5A 2P9

Dear Ms. Atwood,

I hear you've won the Dan David Prize at Tel Aviv University. I'm sure you deserve it. However, I urge you not refuse it.

The Dan David Prize people say that your writing “enabled, for the first time, the emergence of a defined Canadian identity, while exploring both national and transnational issues, such as colonization, feminism, structures of political power and oppression, and the violation and exploitation of nature.” I tend to agree. As such, your understanding of colonization should make it easy for you to recognize Israel as a colonizer that's taken their oppression to the extreme: to occupation, to apartheid, to a potential genocide of the Palestinian people.

I love you Margaret Atwood. Please don't break my heart. Please show solidarity to the Palestinian people and refuse the Dan David Prize.

Sincerely,


eb

of late my mom is sends me the most egregious forwards of 'amazing pictures' or 'you won't believe this! videos. It's like she's unaware photoshop exists. Yes, that bear and that dog are bffs with that penguin. And that baby can do a box step.