Category Archives: On a Personal Note

If your life was a game of Jeopardy, what would your dream categories be?

Posted by on February 22, 2012 1 comment

1. Barenaked Ladies Songs
2. Quotes From The Family Guy
3. Men Think Farts Are Funny. Deal With It.
4. The Arnold Schwarzenegger Accent (Get in the choppah! Arghgwerhhh!)
5. Shameless Franglais 101
6. How Robot Chicken Improved My Quality of Life
7. How Much it Sucks That There Are No Ponderosas or Olive Gardens in Canada
8. “He…. Looka Like a Man”
9. Indian Coworkers Who Love Shania Twain
10. How to Drive Your Mother Mad Just By Being Fifteen

Bonus Round:

1. 90′s rap lyrics

The Pee Pee Dance

Posted by on February 17, 2012 No comments

We’re just going to file this in the “TMI Jennie, what were you thinking?!” folder. I know my readers don’t REALLY need to know this, but I need to blog more frequently and, well, my life isn’t always very interesting. So you’ll just have to tolerate the crap I put up, won’t you? Well, or not I guess. Whatever. I’m posting about pee today and it’s too late to change my mind.

I drink a lot of water. I aim for two liters a day, but usually manage about one and a half during working hours. Problem is, I hate wasting time, and the washroom is all the way over on the other side of my department. A solid 3 minute walk each way. Which isn’t really that far, but when you factor in a six minute round trip with the three to four minutes it takes to… ahem… take care of business, we’re up at ten minutes for each pee break!

So I’m often jumping up and down in my chair, jiggling my leg and yes, pressing my hand up against it like that’ll really help keep the pee in. Thank goodness my desk is at the end of an aisle and nobody ever walks by my cubicle.

I never ever leave my desk to go to the washroom until it’s a life-or-death situation. And GOD HELP THE PERSON who sees me in the hallway and wants to chat with me about something, be it work-related or not.

SRSLY, CAN YOU SEE MY EYES WATER? CAN YOU SEE HOW MY THIGHS ARE PRESSED TOGETHER? CAN’T YOU SEE THE LOOK OF SHEER PANIC IN MY EYES? LET A GIRL SEE A MAN ABOUT A HORSE ALREADY!

A Promise To Myself

Posted by on November 19, 2011 3 comments

For a long time I thought I had my shit together. But it turns out I’m still carrying all sorts of baggage around, and I hadn’t yet taken the time to sort my shit out, if you’ll pardon my French. Instead, I was avoiding. I was keeping myself busy. I was pretending. It’s time for change. That change starts today.

That’s not to say I’m unhappy. Far from it! But I’ve taken a step back from a lot of things in order for me to be able to concentrate on making myself whole again. I’ve got a lot of work to do. I’ve narrowed down my goals into three tangible, attainable targets. I intend to improve:

  • My career prospects
  • My relationship with my daughter
  • My health
To that end, I’m working to eliminate distractions and stressful, unhappy situations from my life so that I can concentrate on the three targets above. And I’m making lists. Have I ever mentioned how much I love making lists?
So, here are my lists. By sharing them with you, I hold myself more accountable. I’ll touch base and update on progress, and you can ask how I’m doing, too!

Career Prospects/Work and Community Involvement
  • March with my brothers and sisters in the Evict Rob Ford rally tomorrow. 
  • Attend NDP Leader’s Levee Saturday night in a pretty black dress. Hand out business cards. Make contacts. Look for opportunities. Enjoy spending time with like-minded folk who have like-minded goals. 
  • Run for the position of Secretary on the executive of my union’s area council.
  • Find someone to nominate me as a delegate to our regional Labour Council.
  • Bug my manager to (finally!) implement the career development portion of my most recent performance evaluation.
  • Join some committees and working groups. It’ll look good on my resume.
  • Volunteer at a soup kitchen. It’ll feel good in my heart.
Relationship with Gwen Junior
  • Start a Saturday afternoon hot yoga routine at Moksha Yoga Uptown (only seven dollars!).
  • Hire a math tutor – sit with them and help.
  • Write a weekly letter to her, and encourage her to do the same.
  • Try to weasel my way back onto her Facebook hahaha
  • Teach her to cook.
My Health
  • Aforementioned weekly hot yoga.
  • Buy a pair of ice skates – skate for free Friday nights.
  • Check out the lane swimming up the street once a week.
  • Stop eating such bullshit! Like, seriously!
  • My friend Mitchell (you like what I did there, M?) just sent me this brown rice detox thing – maybe I’ll try that.
  • Get a solid eight hours sleep.
  • Drink more water!

Jealousy: I Has It!

Posted by on August 5, 2011 5 comments

Well, sort of.

When I set out to write this post, I didn’t know whether to use the term jealousy or envy. I looked up the definitions of both, and found that neither really applied:

jeal·ousy Noun. Feeling of resentment against someone because of that person’s rivalry, success, or advantages.

en·vy Noun. A feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another’s advantages, success, possessions, etc.

I’ll try to explain what I’m feeling, and then I hope that you, gentle reader, will help me find the words to describe what I’m feeling.

Many of my friends and family members are experiencing great change and/or happiness right now.  Roslyn, my dearest friend since high school, gave birth to her fourth beautiful child this year. @ms_snickerpants, one of my very best friends, is getting married to the man of her dreams. My friend Isabel has just moved to South Korea where she is embarking on a great adventure teaching English and exploring the world. You can read about her adventures here. My youngest brother and my stepsister have both risked everything to make their dreams come true, and have emerged victorious in love and acceptance. My new friend Val turned her entire life upside down to finally be true to herself, and is now a proud, confident, happy Lesbian woman (not that she wasn’t before, but not having to hide your feelings and beliefs must feel so empowering and uplifting).

So here’s the thing: while I do have my own awesome stuff going on right now, I’m also jealous of the serious fabulosity my friends are enjoying right now. But jealousy isn’t the right word, because what I feel isn’t negative in any way, shape or form. I don’t wish to have what they have, and I don’t wish for them not to have it. I don’t feel they don’t deserve it, and I certainly don’t feel I deserve it more.

So what, exactly, am I feeling? Is it a simple matter of being happy for them? Because I am. So much. But there’s got to be a word for it! Can you help?