119| in the margins.

i like talking about marginalization. mostly because i believe such a dialogue is healthy, and somewhat necessary to putting an end to marginalizing groups and individuals.

meg is talking about feminism and weddings today. it makes me ridiculously happy.

on the other hand, a local columnist in london {ontario} and i have been picking our battles this weekend over his ethnocentric column from a week ago. the column talks about his experience with a family of either "romanian or lebanese" origin, haggling with someone at a sears outlet store. hardly newsworthy. his assessment of the family as weird and his mocking of their experience was indeed very ethnocentric and hardly empathetic to the culture shock they likely experienced. anyway, it has resulted in a back and forth of comments from myself and from the blogger and a discussion about ethnocentricity and the marginalization of minorities in North American journalism. the discussion was interesting, even if i didn't change his opinion {it ended with "you're wrong, kate! you're wrong about canada and you're wrong about journalism-- i'm not sure if he realized that i'm a communications & canadian history major.}

| image yushimoto |

40| joyful hearts ensue.

andrew + i decided on wedding invitations yesterday, after a long and hearty battle with each other, and many printers. sadly, it seems that printers need margins, and we just aren`t down with that.

furthermore, we want something simple. a conversation a few weeks ago with a friend revealed this:

me: well, we have the cake and the venue
friend: all you need is a judge then
me: well, the real pickle is invitations, right now.
friend: you know, you could just invite people.

so much for simplicity {his wedding had close to five times the number of guests we expect to host}.

that said, it`s one more thing to cross off the "list of things to lead to marital bliss" {ha}. why is it that the lists on theknot are more than 180 items long?

credit ellothere

37| happy monday, or why government runs so slowly.

i came into work today to discover that our system had been "upgraded" to windows vista. furthermore, in doing this, i lost a whole lot of research. and my boss was wondering why i was cursing at nine in the morning.

monday morning props to the crew of wall-e, for winning best animated film, and for reminding me why i hate pc.

credit unknown

33| a most miniscule glimpse.

every morning, i get off the bus at bank and albert, grab an americano from my favourite coffee shop and schlepp my stuff three blocks to my office. about two blocks in, i was stopped by an rcmp officer, a mountie if you will.

and so it began, ottawa's circus maximus, the preparation for the arrival of american president obama. for the past three days, there has been an nbc van outside my office {which is across from parliament hill}, and the crowds this morning have been building around the building. i think about this in terms of a miniscule glimpse, both in terms of glimpsing at the president {not likely} and also a somewhat satirical glimpse into what a security state in canada would look like. the mountie stopped me and asked me what my business in the area was. i shook my head, told him i worked in the chambers building, and moved on. but by no means could i take this attempt and state control seriously, even as the officers were stopping every vehicle on the road, because vehicles are much more likely to harbour terrorists.

either way, i think {no matter how much i adore obama} that this visit will further a post-colonial {read: americanized} canadian identity, and will remind me why i really can't stand canadian media.

yes, we can {overdo it with media coverage of obama's visit}

credit hankins

28| studying stones.

how was your weekend?

in ontario, there is this fabulous thing called family day held on the third monday of february. it's maybe three years old, this idea. all the shops close, all the museums close. and everyone, except for federal government employees {which is all this city is made of} have the day off. so, the day off yesterday i had {even though i work for the government...}

a friend of mine gave birth on sunday, to her second son. i would use adjectives to describe him, but i don't know what he looks like other than a baby with dark dark hair and big eyes, that looks a lot like his older brother did about eighteen months ago. anyway, one of her friends made a comment about how wonderful it was, that the baby came just in time for family day. i says, pardon? because it would be a tragedy if the baby came in time for st. patty's day? {i'm sure baby's father would think otherwise, actually). i know this person was well meaning, but seriously, babies are not things to make political comments about {unless you have eight of them, by in vitro fertilization, and the doctor put 6 embyros in your body. and then you ask people for money *sigh*}.

anyway, enough soapbox for one day.

credit boopsie daisy

13| rules, even computers need

having arrived at my least favourite coffee shoppe in the entirely city, i opened my laptop to find that: a) i have internet access {hurrah} and b) that my computer is in dire need of rules and regulations. more specifically, i am in need of dire rules and regulations for my computer.

i have crumbs {red velvet cupcake}, paint {a marvelously beautiful blue}, glue, and a handful of scuff marks on the once pristine cover of my macbook pro.  no doubt this is the least of my problems, however, given that i am now sober, i am also now realizing that our house is a bit of a mess, and that mess {read: my art being spread around our library + living room} extends unto my computer. no more, says i. 

i say that a lot. 

|credit unplggd |

5| juggling balls, not fire.

there comes a time in everyone's life, arguably several times, when there is a lot to do, and not a lot of time to do it in. if this is only one task, i'm usually pretty good. it's when one task becomes several that i lose my feet and end up yelling "wheeeeee" for the following week or so.

in addition to starting my etsy shop this past week, i am in the thick of starting two new jobs--one paid, one unpaid for school credit. i am also applying for graduate studies for two different programs {that have two different applications}. oh, did i mentioned that i was freaking about money until my student loans came through today! so, basically there has been a lot of stress under my hat for the last few weeks.

to make things even more up in the air, the buses in ottawa have been on strike for fifty {50} days. i would normally be pleased to do more walking and less driving or busing, but for fifty days, we have also had subzero temperatures and snow, snow, snow. so, my days have started at around 6 am, so i can get a ride in with my lovely boss. my days also end at around 11 pm because i can never get myself to sleep any earlier. but in the evenings, i veg, veg, veg, rather than work, work, work.

and so, with twenty-minutes left in the work week, i am telling you fine folks all about my procrastination, and how i tend to do this to myself when i have a lot on my plate. but it will all work out in the end.

it's almost like i juggle balls: i wait until the very moment that the first ball is at its peak before throwing the second one, so i can time it just right. i swear, it's all on purpose.

|credit infogirl |

3| a tip of the hat to the earth (one)

i like sharing stuff. especially information. so, while i may be not so keen on the overabundance of unused blogs, i am quite happy knowing that my blogroll (mostly found through my favourites sidebar) is increasing in size. along the same lines, i like dialoguing, which is part of why i am a fan of blogs.

anyway, i'm not sure who all is aware of this, but most grocery stores still provide paper bags (in ontario, this was a pretty big revelation for me). you just have to ask, since they're more expensive. don't get me wrong: i prefer reusable cloth, cotton, et cetera (see photo). but today, for example, in the midst of lunch hour errands, i realized i needed cheese and hot peppers for tonight's dinner.

i really hate using plastic bags, because i reuse them once and then they get chucked. on the other hand, at the bottega near my office, i grabbed a paper bag from the bakery section, and loaded my tiny pile of groceries into it. the bag will then go into my paper scraps pile when i get home.

all of this is to say, if you have to choose between paper and plastic, remember you do have a choice, despite what grocery stores and bottegas want you to believe.

|credit greenbabyguide|