The winter storm this past weekend has got people talking about the Blizzard of 1999. I'm sick to DEATH of people making fun of Toronto for calling in the military! The people who are doing this obviously didn't live here at the time. We received approximately 120 cms of snow in a little over two weeks. That is four fucking feet of snow, plus mind numbing temperatures and high winds for weeks on end. It was a disaster! Driving was impossible. Getting to work was ridiculous. Finding places to put the snow was hopeless. Just when we got the roads, driveways and sidewalks cleared, we would get another foot or more of snow.
Why doesn't anyone make fun of the people in Quebec during the ice storm of 1998? They called in the military to help them too! So why then are we idiots for doing the same thing? Is it because snow is white and fluffy and therefore less demonized than cold, hard, despicable ice? I don't think so. I think people just like to make fun of Toronto. It pisses me off because those weeks in January 1999 were absolutely horrible; it was extremely scary and I would not want to repeat them for anything.
So just stop it with the Toronto-bashing. Sheesh.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Daddy's Girl
I'm a Daddy's Girl and proud to admit it! My Dad and I have always been very close. He is celebrating his 75th birthday today and while I am accepting of the fact that I'm going to be 50 next year, I find it difficult to believe that my Dad is 3/4 of a century old. He has always seemed so young and full of life to me. I guess that's the way it is with the ones we love -- we see them as they are now but our hearts remember them the way they were when we first learned to love them.
Happy Birthday Dad! I love you.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
More Fun With Words
I found this little gem on our Employee Assistance website yesterday:
Peter and Ellen, on the other hand, find family gatherings a source of holiday woes. First, they drive two hours to Peter's parents' home in the country for brunch. Then, they get in the car and drive another two hours to Ellen's mother's home in the city for the holiday dinner. Peter and Ellen are not only tense from the driving and rushing around, but also because neither one of them really feels comfortable with each other's in-laws.Wouldn't "each other's in-laws" actually refer to their OWN parents???
Monday, December 10, 2007
It’s The Most Stressful Time of the Year!
I watch Breakfast Television every weekday morning and today, Tracy was out in front of Union Station asking people how they are “coping” with the stress of the upcoming holiday season. This topic always comes up in December and makes me laugh. I thought it was supposed to be “the most wonderful time of year”?
I can hear it in people’s voices in the office when they’re talking about the gifts they have to (1) find (2) buy and (3) eventually pay for. Rob commented that once Xmas is over, their stress continues in anticipation of the delivery of their credit card bills. I don’t understand why people allow themselves to be forced into meaningless consumer relationships that thrive on personal debt.
I gave up Xmas a long time ago. I don't buy gifts and I don't accept gifts. I donate money to charity (this year's charity is "Give A Day's Pay to AIDS"). And in response to people’s queries about whether I’m ready for Xmas, I simply say: “I don’t do Xmas.”
I am boycotting the firm's Xmas party and all luncheons. I am staying away from the malls until 2008. I'm hopping on a plane to Mexico on December 25. I'm through with all the marketing BULLSHIT that tells us we have “do” certain things on certain days of the year.
Cherish your friends and family year round. Give gifts when you feel like it. Send cards when someone needs a lift. Pick your own heroes. Don't get sucked in by the idiot box and the media's false worship of wafer-thin socialites who serve no useful purpose in life other than to make headlines.
Enjoy a stress-free holiday by spreading the good cheer over all 365 days, not just one.
I can hear it in people’s voices in the office when they’re talking about the gifts they have to (1) find (2) buy and (3) eventually pay for. Rob commented that once Xmas is over, their stress continues in anticipation of the delivery of their credit card bills. I don’t understand why people allow themselves to be forced into meaningless consumer relationships that thrive on personal debt.
I gave up Xmas a long time ago. I don't buy gifts and I don't accept gifts. I donate money to charity (this year's charity is "Give A Day's Pay to AIDS"). And in response to people’s queries about whether I’m ready for Xmas, I simply say: “I don’t do Xmas.”
I am boycotting the firm's Xmas party and all luncheons. I am staying away from the malls until 2008. I'm hopping on a plane to Mexico on December 25. I'm through with all the marketing BULLSHIT that tells us we have “do” certain things on certain days of the year.
Cherish your friends and family year round. Give gifts when you feel like it. Send cards when someone needs a lift. Pick your own heroes. Don't get sucked in by the idiot box and the media's false worship of wafer-thin socialites who serve no useful purpose in life other than to make headlines.
Enjoy a stress-free holiday by spreading the good cheer over all 365 days, not just one.
Monday, December 03, 2007
Making Your Bed and Lying In It
Rob and I went to DC this past weekend and stayed at the Holiday Inn in Georgetown. It's an old hotel, with sleepy service (the front desk people would much rather talk to each other than to any of the customers on the paying side of the counter) and outdated furnishings ("Hello? The '80s called and they want their curtains back!"). The place was convenient to where we needed to be and we've stayed there before so it's not like we were surprised by the conditions.
When it came time to get into bed on Saturday night, I turned down the bedspread to find the weirdest combination of bedding I've ever seen on a hotel bed anywhere:
1. The bottom "fitted" sheet was not pulled fully onto the mattress so by the simple act of sitting on the side of the bed, the sheet came completely off.
2. The top sheet came up to the top of the bed and was folded over almost 24".
3. The blanket on top of this came up approximately 2/3 of the bed. When I was lying down, the blanket came to my waist.
4. There was another sheet ON TOP of the blanket. WTF?!!! It came up to my shoulder level.
At some point during the night, we both woke up freezing. I didn't have enough covers on me and couldn't pull the blanket up any further than my waist. Plus the bottom sheet has pulled free of the mattress at my feet. So I got up at 3AM, tore the bed apart and remade it to my satisfaction.
I started remaking the bed at Rob's place, even before I moved in. He used to jokingly tell everyone that "the military has been in to make the bed" and he wasn't too far off the truth!
I had the whole bedmaking thing down pat during Basic Training. Since we were always lined up alphabetically, two of my best buddies were Joanne McPhee (in line ahead of me) and Denise Noseworthy (in line behind me). Noseworthy was 1/4" short of 6 feet tall so we would get her to lie under the bed (pulling the bottom sheet tight through the spring platform) while Jo and I worked our magic on the top of the bed. The bottom sheet had 45 degree angled corners, the black stripe in the gray wool DND blanket ran down the centre of the bed and the top sheet was folded exactly 18" over the top edge of the blanket. The pillow also had to be pummelled into a certain dimension.
By the end of our 10 weeks together, the three of us could make three beds in 20 minutes. And we only ever slept in our beds the night before we were being issued clean linens (once a week). I slept on top in my sleeping bag the rest of the time.
When it came time to get into bed on Saturday night, I turned down the bedspread to find the weirdest combination of bedding I've ever seen on a hotel bed anywhere:
1. The bottom "fitted" sheet was not pulled fully onto the mattress so by the simple act of sitting on the side of the bed, the sheet came completely off.
2. The top sheet came up to the top of the bed and was folded over almost 24".
3. The blanket on top of this came up approximately 2/3 of the bed. When I was lying down, the blanket came to my waist.
4. There was another sheet ON TOP of the blanket. WTF?!!! It came up to my shoulder level.
At some point during the night, we both woke up freezing. I didn't have enough covers on me and couldn't pull the blanket up any further than my waist. Plus the bottom sheet has pulled free of the mattress at my feet. So I got up at 3AM, tore the bed apart and remade it to my satisfaction.
I started remaking the bed at Rob's place, even before I moved in. He used to jokingly tell everyone that "the military has been in to make the bed" and he wasn't too far off the truth!
I had the whole bedmaking thing down pat during Basic Training. Since we were always lined up alphabetically, two of my best buddies were Joanne McPhee (in line ahead of me) and Denise Noseworthy (in line behind me). Noseworthy was 1/4" short of 6 feet tall so we would get her to lie under the bed (pulling the bottom sheet tight through the spring platform) while Jo and I worked our magic on the top of the bed. The bottom sheet had 45 degree angled corners, the black stripe in the gray wool DND blanket ran down the centre of the bed and the top sheet was folded exactly 18" over the top edge of the blanket. The pillow also had to be pummelled into a certain dimension.
By the end of our 10 weeks together, the three of us could make three beds in 20 minutes. And we only ever slept in our beds the night before we were being issued clean linens (once a week). I slept on top in my sleeping bag the rest of the time.
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