Look at me, employed!

Today I got a job! I will be teaching Kindergarten on a temporary contract for at least six months, but possibly (and likely) until the end of the school year... I am so excited I could just explode. Whoopee!!!

In my own little world

Today, a hike at Lake Louise. Very touristy but a good starting point for me probably, since the last time I went on a hike was probably in 1999 in the White Mountains with la familia. It starts out at the Chateau Lake Louise with about a million tourists with cameras around their necks wearing fancy shirts and unsuitable hiking shoes/flipflops, and after the first slightly challenging ascent little bit everyone gets filtered out and you're left with the serious hikers (hahahahaha like ME) and some really idiotic tourists who like to feed the chipmunks until they are fat and dependent while taking pictures and saying "oooh, how cute". Stupid stupid stupid. Also witnessed a man climbing up the middle of a big pile of rocks which had clearly moved there not so long ago, off the trail soon to be swallowed up the next time the boulders decided to move. Oh, and the man filling up his water bottle directly from the river. But all the tourist idiocy aside it was a STUNNING day and I will leave you with these....







P.S. These are not postcards I really took them myself...

Feed me

I have a problem. After contemplating this over many meals, drinks, snacks, and hors d'oevres, I realize that food plays a very BIG part of my life. And I'm not talking about sustaining myself, eating for health or nutrition. I really like food. REALLY like food. It turns out that when I meet up with certain people, all I do is EAT with them. Forget the movies, forget going to the park, let's eat! And then according to Fiona I like to READ about eating too. All I can think of is the last book I read (Boogaloo on 2nd Avenue by Mark Korlanski, v. good) which has numerous yummy things mentioned throughout, but according to her "lots" of the books I read are about food in some way or another. I'm not fat, and I hope I don't get fat, I just really like eating. So I was thinking about this, about making a salad, and then I made a cake. A really good gooey chocolatey one that I particularly enjoyed pouring milk over a few days after I made it. Hmm.

I looked at the Rubens and Rembrandts / I liked the John Singer Sargents / He told me he liked Turner / Never have I turned since then....

That's Rufus Wainwright up there, who I have been enjoying a lot lately.... Another thing I've been enjoying a lot lately is some painting. It all started months ago with a series of dreams I had that were full of colour and texture, all abstract but quite vivid. Of course there is no art supply store in Fort McMurray so I had to wait to buy some paints, and by the time I had them the images had somewhat left me... plus I was in the middle of a funk and couldn't really get motivated to do much. And then! An invigorating move to Calgary. Both of these are based on / inspired by songs, and I was going to put the lyrics up but I decided I didn't like that, so you'll have to look for yourself if you want to find out more...


"First Day Of My Life" by Bright Eyes


"Our Way to Fall" by Yo La Tengo

Now I'd like some feedback, honest-to-goodness feedback. I won't be offended and would indeed really appreciate some constructive criticism. Oh, and I'm not taking the painter thing TOO seriously, because if I'm going to base them all on songs the next one might be the Evaporators' "Addicted to Cheese" which goes something like this: "Help me / I've gotta disease / I'm addicted to cheese", thank you Nardwuar.

I'm out.

13 minutes until I get booted off...

I'm taking refuge from the rain at the library and I have 13 minutes until I get booted off the computer. I have just spent a few minutes on some job sites, and NO i don't want to work at Home Depot and NO I do not want to fly to South Korea to teach ESL. I am having a mini job crisis, wondering if I should apply for something meaningful and worthwhile until I get some news from the school board, or if I should sell my soul and end up working a barista or cash register somewhere to fill the days and make a bit of money. My attempts at working for next-to-nothing at the Epcor centre have proven nothing but frustrating, so I am wavering between giving up and telling some people off... On a good note though, I will probably be hiking somewhere in the Kaninaskis on Thursday to get out of the city for a break and Max is coming to visit on Friday and Saturday! wheeeeeeee. xo