Author Archives: Owldaughter

Out Of It

The four-legs are tearing around like mad things this morning. Major spring/cabin fever, apparently. They’re not quite making the turns in the kitchen and they’re bashing into each other, which is rather amusing.

I’m out of it and dizzy today. So out of it, in fact, that I tried to reheat three slices of pizza in the oven for lunch, and baked them to a crisp. Convinced that I evidently shouldn’t try to assemble anything to eat that required heat or sharp objects somewhere in the process of preparation, I scanned my fridge and my pantry without success. Then I saw the bowl of apples and decided to have one. The first bite convinced me that I had wanted an apple all along and the lack of culinary focus was in fact a godsend.

Go figure.

Scattershot

Yesterday night was:

– The first thunder/lightning storm of the year. Cool. Very, very cool. (Except when the power cut out for a second or two while my husband was watching the ongoing election coverage. Bad moment.)

– A turning point in Quebec politics as the Liberal party was voted in by a severe majority. Let’s see: my in-laws’ house just increased in value by $20,000; industry will begin to revive; investors will return. My one regret: we don’t own property ourselves. Ah well.

– The last meeting of the Monday night class that I co-teach. There will be plenty of student meetings throughout the summer, and activities planned, but this was really the end of a serious commitment for everyone. Now I devote myself to my Saturday morning class, and the scattered lectures and workshops I will be teaching in the near future, such as the guest lecture I’m giving on modern Celtic Pagan worship at Champlain College this Thursday. I’ve spoken with the teacher, who sounds like a great guy, and I’m looking forward to it. I was a bit at sea about what exactly to focus on — he teaches a humanities class of mythology — but we worked out a basic hour of personal experience talk regarding how I worship, what I do, what I believe in, and so forth. It’s a great opportunity, and promises to be quite the experience.

On Voting As A Responsibility

I’ve been hearing terrible reports of people with no idea where they’re to vote today, stemming from an incomplete distribution of reminder cards with the address of their pertinent polling station. The only reason I know where to go is because I caught sight of a pile of plastic-covered cards tucked into the stack of flyers by the front door of our building. I always wonder if mix-ups like this, or the incredibly long time it took my husband and I to change our address on the voters’ list (and they still weren’t certain it would work) are deliberate. And I always wonder what percentage of the citizenship will actually make the effort to go vote. My personal opinion is that it�s a right and a responsibility – I mean, I live here, so I ought to at least pretend I have a say in how the place is run – and if you ignore it, then you really shouldn’t be allowed to complain when the people who end up in power start doing stupid things. Because, you know, they will.

On Shopping For Clothing That Fits

For years I have purchased clothing based on an extremely outdated pragmatism. Buy them a bit big, then you can grow into them.

This was fine when I was a kid, when I was a teenager. As a teen and in my early twenties I was also much more comfortable wearing clothes that disguised my body slightly – call it a confidence thing if you like. Now that I’m pushing thirty-two, though, buying clothes that don’t fit just doesn’t work as well for me. (MLG’s constant voluntary assurance that I’m a babe helps a lot, too.) I have long legs and a short torso, as well, so shopping for clothes means that 98% of the time, they won’t fit me properly anyway. And since I (unintentionally) lost weight recently, all the clothes that were loose on me are now ridiculously baggy.

When I was looking for something to wear earlier this week, I snapped and saw red. Not a single pair of jeans fits me properly around the waist, which means they sag everywhere else, too. Damn it, it’s spring, and I want to look good. I want to feel like I look good, and jeans that are several sizes too big just don’t cut it.

So after work yesterday I took the metro up to Namur to check out the Le Chateau outlet, where they usually have decent clothing at decent prices.

Well, apart from the truly horrendous music, all their pants were thirty dollars or more. The music eventually chased me out with a headache, so I decided to walk along Jean-Talon to the Village des Valeurs instead. Who knows – maybe there will be something not-so-bad there, I thought, or maybe I’ll pull off an amazing find.

Door number two it was. The prize?

I came out with two very sexy pairs of Levis jeans in perfect condition. And they cost me less than twenty dollars total. If I told you what size they are, you’d lynch me, so suffice it to say that they’re about three sizes smaller than the jeans I’ve been wearing for the past four or five years.

Damn, I look good. And I’m thrifty, to boot.

Fate Accompli

I am so virtuous. So very, very virtuous.

Another two hours of work accomplished. That’s a total of five hours today! (Hey, if you are aware in any shape or form of my track record lately, you too would be cheering. Raise the roof! Raise it!)

I’ll polish it up tomorrow and send it off. Now, I’m going to kick back and go read some Jungian analysis of fairy-tales. (Yeah, well, I find it interesting, so there.)