larry!

weekend planz

will george be willing to share his toys?

* toronto animal services is having a "sale" on cats this weekend – $25 to adopt a cat or kitten – and YB is ready to adopt. she's got all her gear (litter box, litter, food bowls et al.) and had said last week that she'd start looking during the next $25 sale (they happen a few times each year). then, unexpectedly, my mom said she might consider a second cat. a friend for george, who has separation anxiety and doesn't like to be left alone, especially at night. i think we're heading to one of the shelters this afternoon to see who might want a new home.

* mom gets her new car on monday, so we'll take her white intrigue out for one last spin or two. it was a great car, and still in good condition (with mileage under 150K) but, in order to get the insurance money, she has to hand it over. we'll be cleaning out all its pockets and compartments.

* it's rainy and windy here today, and the perfect day for making soup.

* tomorrow is supposed to be crisp and cold and mainly sunny. mom bought herself a ticket to an afternoon concert at roy thomson hall, so we'll go to lunch, she'll go hear the military bands and i'll maybe go for a big walk OR see a movie OR who knows. the fall colours have peaked, so it might be time for a stroll through the botanical gardens or the toronto islands. either way, i think we'll be having tacos before we each head off in search of sunday-afternoon fun.

lady, bugged.

on monday, i was walking back to the office from an appointment with my therapist. i'd spent the past hour discussing work, and my stress levels, and my dissatisfaction with it all. i was feeling a bit worked up and generally annoyed, and was making my way along the sidewalk, lost in my own grumbly thoughts.

at one point, i looked up and, for the briefest of moments, saw something orange flying straight for my face. it hit my forehead and, in a mild panic, i thought it might have been a wasp.

i looked down and there, sitting on my lapel like a cheerful little pin, was a ladybug.

i stopped walking. "this has to be some kind of good luck, or a sign," i thought.

i moved my finger over to my tiny new friend and it climbed aboard.

then just... sat there on my knuckle. i didn't want to fling him into the air so, as i waited to cross the street, i looked for somewhere appropriate for him to perch. (though, for a minute, i did consider letting him ride my finger all the way to my desk.)

he stayed put on my extended finger, as though he were my pet and we were out for a stroll. when i crossed the street, i found some shrubs and tried to get him to climb off onto a leaf. at first, he resisted, climbing farther onto my hand instead of anywhere near the shrub. so, i had to redirect him, nudge him off and, a few moments later, bid him adieu as he settled in to his leafy new respite spot.

as i walked back to work, i said a quiet "thank you" to the universe for snapping me out of my own head in a such an adorable way. in a split second, i'd gone from "arrrrgh, arrrrgh, arrrrgh" to "awww! look at you! hi, little guy!", and so needed it.

sunday-night updates

* my parents just bought a new car. a honda civic. a couple of weeks ago, they were in a minor fender bender with a young girl who was waiting in a left-turn lane and decided to pull *out* of the lane... but didn't check her blind spot and, thus, clipped the rear driver-side wheel well of my mom's car (because mom was driving in the lane into which this young woman pulled about 10 seconds too soon). at first, the girl wanted to avoid alerting the insurance companies... then balked when my parents' mechanic quoted an $950 repair fee. so, they went through the insurance companies and their mechanics quoted a repair fee of more than $2000. oh well! but my parents' insurance company actually said the price of the repair was more than the value of the car... so they paid 'em out $3500. and, within 48 hours and after some hugely stress-inducing car shopping with my father (omg), mom settled on a civic. they're waiting to hear if the colour mom wants is available, but she should be driving around in new wheels by halloween. (note: their current car is not undrive-able, and the dent is small... but it's in a location that can't be pounded out without essentially taking the car apart.)

* i have an editorial assistant starting tomorrow. the good news: she will take on work that would otherwise have been assigned to me. the bad news: she won't actually be alleviating any of my current workload, just preventing more from landing on my desk.

* after all the crap i ate on our recent road trip, i've decided to resume eating healthier. i'd basically fallen off the quinoa/salad/whole grain bandwagon a few months ago, and i've noticed some doughiness around my middle. turns out, that's where your body stores fat when you're under stress. GO FIGURE. so, today, mom, trix and i had lunch at whole foods where, for only $3.74, i loaded up at their hot/cold buffet with all kinds of superfoods and dark, leafy greens. we went grocery shopping thereafter (not at whole foods), and i bought broccoli, baby spinach and apples. YB made a delicious vegetarian shepherd's pie on friday, so i took home leftovers of that and of the pesto-bean-potato fettuccine she made for a dinner party she hosted yesterday. i also brought home leftover grapes (they are huge and delicious), some jarlsberg cheese and a sleeve of bran crunch cookies... which are much tastier than they sound.

* further to the apple note above, i have discovered sweetango apples. they are nothing short of SPECTACULAR. and, unfortunately, expensive. a half-dozen of them cost me $8 today. but they're so worth it.

* and further to the image accompanying today's entry: i, like thousands of other torontonians, received a notice from the sheriff's office several weeks ago, alerting me to the fact that i might be called for jury duty in 2014. i was required (by law) to fill out a prospective-juror survey -- wherein i answer questions about any criminal convictions in my past, whether i'm a veterinarian (or any other profession exempt from serving) and the like -- which had to be returned in a postage-paid envelope that bore the return address you see above.

* for a fleeting moment yesterday, i considered this property. it popped up in my listings. isn't it cool?! if i were working from home (and didn't need to go downtown daily), and had a car, i might have considered it... because it's totally me... but it's in the middle of nowhere, amenities- and commute-wise, and not having laundry is a deal-breaker. plus, i also suspect houseboat ownership comes with all sorts of headaches (e.g., insurance, partyboat neighbours) that condo or house ownership might not. anyway, enjoy the virtual tour. i did!

i'm giving serious thought to resigning...

... not from the company, because i really like my colleagues, but certainly from this position. after a wonderful five-day escape to the U.S. (filled with junk food and misadventures), i went back to work today and walked face first into a mountain of work. it's amazing how much accumulated in only 48 hours (monday was a holiday here in canada).

more than the sheer volume of work, though, it's the thanklessness of the work that's getting to me. it's like being in a job where you only ever do things wrong. and then hear about how wrong it all is.

no matter what i put before the clients, no matter what's been written or how a page has been designed or how much effort has gone into something, it's always wrong. there is no pleasing them, and their tastes change by the day.

one issue, the colours are too bright. so we mute them. the next issue? the colours are too boring and need to be "more exciting."

copy is too serious and needs to be "more fun." so, we write "fun" copy and it's deemed too lighthearted and fluffy.

they want black, so we give them black. then they want white, so we delete the black and give them white. then they decide they want brown. then purple. then back to black.

it's like banging your head against a wall.

and no one ever says, "thank you." thanks for doing a good job, thanks for staying until 8pm, thanks for keeping things moving, thanks for not quitting, thanks for picking up everyone's slack.

unfortunately for me, there's no sign of it getting better anytime before, oh, january. and i have my doubts that january will actually bring relief, since it's been promised to me since july.

"next month will be better."

yet every month is actually worse than the last, and i'm growing decreasingly interested in seeing just how bad it can get. i rarely take lunch, i have no life outside the office, i'm always the last to leave the office... and, over the past little while, i've started to reevaluate whether this is the kind of job i want. one where i don't enjoy what i do, and one where i'm tired all the time. i left full-time work for exactly the reasons i'm considering leaving it again.

so, i'm thinking. in the meantime, please enjoy the first photo i took on this weekend's road trip -- it's the rest area in grimsby, just after 7am, as the fog was slowly lifting.

road trippin'!

on saturday morning, before dawn, YB and i will be heading out for four days of shopping and eating in america. we'll go as far as cleveland and then work our way back through erie, PA, and buffalo.

i'm very much looking forward to not being at work. also, to buying new shoes and pants, and to eating at our favourite U.S. chain restaurants, and to picking up more of the delicious shortbread we found at one of the whole foods we visited.

i'm bringing my camera and plan on documenting the trip. i'm hoping for some awesome fall colours, some funny signs, some delicious dishes and at least one photo -- like the one above -- of a moe's burrito.

happy thanksgiving weekend to my canadian pals! i'll be south of the border, celebrating with some columbus day sales. :-D

weekending

here's all you really need to know about this weekend: on saturday evening, i spent five hours playing with a nikon D700 and assorted lenses, and taking 999 photos at the wedding reception for a couple of newly married friends of mine. it was exhausting but incredibly satisfying.

above is one of those photos, which i happen to like quite a bit. :-)