Rec contr' Amor non es guirens lai on sos poclers, s'autra.

Ah dear LJ. How little I post to you.

Thought I should write something about how things are going, seeing as I rarely see most of you. It's mostly pretty boring, so I'll keep it short. And bullet-pointed.

* work. I'm now working with The Canada School of Public Service, as an ED-LAT 1. What this means is that I have the exact same job as before, only now with the government, instead of being self-employeed. As well, I went term at the beginning of this week.

* work2. While I work with CSPS, I'm working in departments, not at Asticou. So I'm at Sport Canada (a branch of Heritage Canada) and at INAC (Indian and Northern Affairs.) Both are at Terraces de la Chaudiere. Or however that's spelled.

* trivia. Still hosting trivia Sunday nights at the Oak. Doing pretty good, I get a lot of good feedback, people think I'm funny, and they keep coming back. Average crowd is about 40.

* romance. I have a boyfriend. He's a Leafs fan, though. I'm trying to change that.

* travel. Went to Peru in August for three weeks. Photos on flickr, under anya_at_large. Climbed a mountain (hit 4758 metres above sea level.), saw Manchu Picchu, went paragliding in Lima, ate a guinea pig. (tasted really salty.)

* travel2. Hoping to join a climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro for this upcoming July.

* awesomeness. Will carry the Olympic Torch on Dec. 12. Totally psyched. Was really worried that the pants would be too long, and I would trip. Turns out pants are fine - but the jacket arms are loooooong. So don't have to worry about tripping, just setting myself on fire and being a human torch.

* family. Family is good, and will be getting bigger at the end of January. My sister is preggers.

* friends. Have met lots of great people over the year, both here and abroad. I'm lucky to know some awesome people, including those at Coles St. Laurant, where I'm temping for the holidays.

And that's pretty much it. I'll now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

A.

The trip to Peru is really coming together. I've booked a tour that runs from Cuzco to the Nazca Lines then on to Lima. We get to do a fly-over of the lines, to see them properly, which I'm excited about. Plus, this way I don't have to spend 30 hours on a bus, attempting to get back to Lima at the end of my trip.

I've also booked my trek up to Machu Picchu. I'm doing the Salkantay trek - 5 days, 4 nights, and up to 4650 m above sea level. Thankfully, I'm doing my trip backwards to most people - I'm hitting Cuzco and Machu Picchu last, so I'll have had plenty of time to acclimatize by then.

Other than those two things, I haven't booked anything, but they were the two most important things to get done. The rest of the time I'll be visiting cities, so there's nothing to book other than hostels.

One month! Then I'm off for 17 of Peruvian adventures.

A.

Just found out that I made it to the second (and last) round of a contest to carry the Olympic Torch in December.

Woooohoooo!

So, the house has been sold, and the new people take possession on July 15th. This is all fine - my only question is:

What happens to my last months rent? And the interest incurred on that? I've been here 4.5 years - actually, by the time they take possession, it'll be 4 years and 10 months and 2 weeks.

Who do I talk to about this?

A.

Dear Real Estate Agents,

When you, and the person you are escorting around the property, come into my apartment, there are a few important things to remember.

At the top of the list is the fact that this is my home. So take off your damn shoes.

Right below that, is stop unplugging my clock. This is not your home, you don't get to do things like that. Hands off everything.

And third - turn off the damn lights. I pay hydro, you twits, and I'm not paying extra money so you can leave all the lights on for hours on end because you're too lazy to read the sign on the door that says "Please turn off the tenants' lights."

Thanks.

I have my French oral test on the 13th. I just got the email today. So, one step closer for the teaching job. The good thing is that both of the jobs I'm in competition for (the Legistic Revisor, and the teaching position) but require a B in Oral Interaction, so if I pass this test, I won't have to do it again for 5 years.

My only question is, how the hell do I talk about my job in French? I teach English! English grammar is not French grammar! I can talk your ear off about other topics - say curling, or beer - in French, but work, that's a different story.

Here's hoping.

A.

Or my life.

Things are going good. I had an interview with the Canada Public School of Service two weeks ago, the Monday before Easter. I have no idea how I did - might have done well, might not have. I'm now at the waiting stage, again, to see about the next step. Waiting kills me - I am not, by nature, a very patient person!

I also did English language tests, for the *third* time, last Saturday, for a job with the Department of Justice. It's for a Legistic Revisor job. Basically, I'd be proofing and editing Legislative texts and publications. It would be a sweet job to have, although it might be a long shot. It's an SI-04 position, which is fairly high to start at. I was one of the youngest people at the exams - and after writing them, I can see why. Holy crap, batman, they were hard!

The first test was a 35 minute proof-reading test. We were given a Master Copy and an un-correct proof that we had to match to the Master. That wasn't too bad - I just had to make sure to pay attention to the spelling, which is often skipped over as brains tend to read what it *should* say, not what it does.

After that was a 40 minute grammar test, which was freakin' hard. And I teach grammar! If there is one thing in this world that I know, it is English grammar, but this test was picky picky picky.

The last one was a one-hour editing test. We were given a legislative act draft that we had to edit - looking at logic (does it make sense?), grammar, punctuation, spelling, all that good stuff. I think I did ok on this one, too. I do know that I caught a couple of small errors that some people might have skipped over.

So the end to all that is that I'm in a holding pattern job-wise. I still have my job, but I'm looking for a change. I've been put into a pool of semi-qualified applicants for CR-04s at Industry Canada, as well, so we'll see how that one goes.

Otherwise, things are moving on as usual. Trivia is going good - we average about 40 people each week, which is a huge number. People seem to like having me host - I joke around with them, but keep the game moving forward. Curling finished a few weeks ago, and this Saturday we have a BBQ to commemorate the season. After that, soccer starts up, so hopefully that'll also keep me busy.

I've gotten back to running - doing a 5.6K run at least once a week, although with nicer weather coming, hopefully I can up that to three or four times a week. Helps me burn off some extra energy.

Also hoping to get another Festival Pass for Bluesfest. Why break a tradition now? And one of my favourite singers, Paolo Nutini, is coming this year. Along with my friend's band, The Brother's Chaffey, not to mention all the big name acts this year. (Although can anything compare with 2007, when I saw Van Morrison and Bob Dylan?)

A.

Israel and Hamas can negotiate a ceasefire, but Ottawa and the union can't negotiate anything.

Nice.

A.

A friend of mine is putting together a team for the World Trivia game on Nov. 21. Is anyone interested in joining? It'll be $25 to join (to cover the $250 fee for the team to play). I'm a little sketchy on the details still, but let me know if you'd like to join!

A.

Got the scanner thing worked out - thanks everyone! (plastikgyrl, next time I need one, I'm coming over to your house with knitting and tea!)

My new question for everyone is: Does anyone want to see Wynton Marsalis with me? He's playing at Confederation Park on June 20th, at 8:30. Tickets are $30, but we could forgo the tickets and just sit outside the park on the sidewalk and listen.

A.

Do I know anyone locally with a scanner? I have a few documents I need to scan, asap.

I'm going on a date on Friday, and I've been told to pick a place.

I'll be arriving from Bayshore, he's coming from Tunney's area......any ideas on where to go? Some place where we can talk - so I'm thinking pub over bar. And *no* I'd rather not go to an Oak.....

Suggestions please!

A.

Dear LiveJournal,

What would you do with a large sum of unexpected money? For the sake of argument, we'll say $8500 - enough, but not a huge amount.

Would you put it towards something useful?
Would you blow it all?
Would you invest it?


A.

My massive tv just gave up the ghost.

Any ideas on how to get rid of it? It's really large, so I don't want to just put it on the curb (although, couches seem to disappear when that happens, so maybe I should?)

My other concern is how, exactly, do I move the damn thing downstairs? Help?

A.

* rice paper (available in the Asian food section of your grocery store)
* rice vermicelli noodles (available in the Asian food section of your grocery store)
* carrots (cut into thin strips)
* cucumbers (cut into thin strips)
* spinach
* green onions (chopped)
* Thai sweet chili sauce (optional)

Soak the vermicelli in water.
Pour boiling hot water into a plate or dish - not too deep of a dish, though. Gently slide the rice paper into the boiling water, and wait until it is "cooked" (about 10 seconds or so - it should no longer be hard and rigid).
Place the wet rice paper on another place, and fill with the vermicelli, carrots, spinach, cucumber, and green onions.
Bring bottom of rice paper up, and fold left side over.
Roll the rest of the spring roll tightly.
Place in fridge for a couple of hours.

Use the sweet chili sauce as a dip.

You can use other veggies if you'd like, or subtract ones from this list.

I love soup. I love cooking soup. So I used my Christmas turkey left-overs for soup.

* turkey - cut up into small bits.
* chicken broth
* 4 stalks celery - chopped
* carrots - chopped
* 1 small onion - chopped, sauteed
* mushrooms - chopped
* two cloves of garlic, crushed
* black pepper (roughly 1 1/2 teaspoons)
* parsley (roughly 1 teaspoon)
* oregano (roughly 1 teaspoon)
* 2 bay leaves
* cumin (roughly 1 teaspoon)
* chipolte chili pepper seasoning (roughly 1/2 teaspoon)


I didn't measure the seasonings - I used about a teaspoon of them all - maybe a bit more the black pepper, and a bit less of the chipolte. The cumin and chipolte will make the soup spicy, so feel free to not add them, they're not essential to the over all soup.

Throw all the meat, veggies, garlic, bay leaves, black pepper, parsley and oregano into a saucepan, and simmer on low heat for an hour or two (pretty much until the smell drives you crazy.) Add the cumin and chipolte, and let simmer for 20 more minutes.

Good eating!

1. I've been doing mucho training at the bookstore in the past week. Like, training 4 new girls mucho.

2. One of those 4 new girls is....Anja, where the "j" is pronounced like a "y". Yeah - there are now *two* of us. WTF, I ask you?

3. My ESL students are getting their levels. This means that I have a 98% success rate with my students. I rawk! And so do they.

4. I haven't had an appetite in 3 weeks. But I'm not tired, sick, cold, or anything else. I have lots of energy, I'm happy, I do my thing......so who knows.

5. Bathroom ceiling = big hole. Still.

6. My Great-Aunt died two weeks ago.

And that is all. Not exciting, just....life.

A.

For the plumbers: $1380, over 3 visits.

Still left: The dry-walling of my bathroom ceiling.

But thank gods there is no more leak!

A.

Memo to me:

if plumbers are coming to work in your bathroom for an entire day, go pee before they get here.

And don't drink coffee after that.

Thanks,

Me.

Seeing the spat of "acceptance of self" posts on my flist has given me some introspection. I've never had to come out (other than that time that I had to tell my mom I was straight), but I do remember finally coming to terms with being "different."

While I'd always accepted that I wasn't quite like the other kids (as n8an put it "we live in 'interesting times'"), I can't pretend that I was ever actually ok with it. I never tried to be like the other kids - there was no way I was just ever going to fit in, even if I wore the same clothes, wore the same hair-styles, talked the same way, acted the same way. I was always going to be different, but I wasn't sure I wanted to be different. I wanted to fit in, to some degree. I wanted to be me, but as a young teenager, I wasn't sure how to do that, and still fit in to the only society that I knew.

To say this gave me great grief, and a rather large chip on my shoulder, would be putting it mildly. Entering university gave me the opportunity to be someone else, finally. I changed my name, left my friends, and was next to miserable for nearly a year.

Until I met a great group of incredibly odd people who were not only ok with being odd, but actually embraced it in themselves, and in others. It suddenly didn't matter that my idea of logic was slightly bent; that my sense of humour a little crooked; my sense of being, more broad than narrow. The fact that weird occurances followed me in day-to-day life didn't cause any comment, other than perhaps "you too?!?" It wasn't that they praised someone for being different, rather that it was considered "normal" to be "abnormal."

People like plastikgyrl and n8an showed me that being yourself goes beyond what you've been taught, how you were raised, and what people expected of you. They taught me that strength comes through character, not deeds, that individuality was something to be embraced, not defiantly held up as a shield. notmikesince91, and sykomonkey taught me that being brilliant in one area wasn't a bad thing - being a geek could, in fact, be the entry into a new world. quotation taught me, if belatedly, that being out-spoken could have it's benefits. mightycodking showed me that liking incredibly bad movies didn't mean that I was destined to see them alone, even if he didn't really mean it at the time.

Without this group of people at a desperately needed point in time, who knows where I would be today? They gave me the strength to embrace, accept and become who I was. They were my instructors into who I could be, who I was, and who I wanted to be. Without them, there is no doubt that I wouldn't be who I am now.

A.