Women's March

Yesterday, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States of America.

You have no idea how much I wish that was the opening line to a joke. But it isn't. It's very real.

Watching the news over the last 6 months has made me increasingly more worried, more concerned. 

I studied history. I know that women and minorities have had to fight for almost every right, every privileged that's been granted to them through out history. I know that the fight continues for some of those today. 

I saw a public figure make bold and disturbing statements that threaten the social rights progress that has been made over the last few decades. I saw people accept what that public figure said. I saw people support, defend and "brush off" those statements. Then I saw the unthinkable happen:

I saw a nation elect that public figure into what is arguably one of the most powerful political positions in the world. 

I'm no longer worried, I'm terrified. I'm terrified that a strained situation is going to snowball and get worse. I'm terrified that those who were able to accept those disturbing statements will become so complacent that they start to accept disturbing actions. 

I'm beyond terrified that those attitudes will filter into my country, and that my nieces will grow up in a world that treats women, minorities, civil, social and basic human rights worse than the world that I was lucky enough to grow up in.

Forget making America great again, let's try returning hope to all those who struggle, who are oppressed just because of their gender, religion, skin colour or sexual orientation.

I am hopeful for a world of harmony, acceptance and grace, where the United States isn't being lead by a bully and where basic human rights aren't in jeopardy.

This is why I support all those women and men who were marching in peaceful protest all around the world today. Thank you and Good night.

Sarah

True Patriot Love

Life is full of little ironies. Like the fact that I'm sitting here, scrolling through Pinterest in search of "healthy" meals while making my way through a small pile of Hallowe'en candy minis and am pouting because I just dropped 2 M&Ms on the floor (you only get like 10 total in a pack!). I think it's time to lay off them though as I'm beginning to feel ill. It's been a rough week and I'm PMSing to boot (explains the Hallowe'en candy, doesn't it?).

I started a new job this week. Change and I are old foes but we're reached a truce over the last few years so the transition into my new place of work wasn't as traumatic as it would have been say, 2 years ago. It was both exciting and frightening at the same time. My new work environment is drastically different than my previous one. For starters, I am now one of the "younger" employees in my office. Previously, I was somewhere in the "middle to older" range. My new office has an 80 year old. In my previous office, I knew the names (and faces) of all 191 staff members. There's something like 178 people in my new office, spread out over 4 floors. As of today, I can recall the names and faces of 10 people and two of them have the same first name so I only have to remember that name once. The bathrooms are much better though. There's actual ventilation in these ones. Not once this week have I walked into the washroom and thought to myself "OMG, what died in here". At my previous place of work, that was almost a daily occurrence. And the people in my new office don't eat lunch together. Almost everyone goes to the food court to buy lunch and then they eat at their desks. I'm a much more social creature than that. My goal for next week is to find a lunch buddy.

I did get to know some of my new co-workers a little better on Wednesday though. My building was put on lock-down until 5:30pm after a fucked-up idiot shot and killed an honour guard and shot and wounded an un-armed guard while running around part of downtown Ottawa and Parliament Hill.  It was a home-grown terror attack. In my city. And all I keep thinking is: "How dare he".

Ottawa has a population of just shy of 900,000 people. Before Wednesday's tragic turn of events, Ottawa only had 4 murders on record for the year. That's it. Take Calgary for example. They have just over 1 million people and have had 24 murders so far this year. A lot of people are under the misconception that Ottawa is a boring city. I think we get a bad wrap because we're a government town and all the cool bands forget about us and are drawn to the flashier cities like Montreal and Toronto. But we are fun. We're a perfect mix of big city and small town. Want to get in some culture? We've got museums and the National Arts Centre. Want sports? We've got NHL, CFL and 3 post-secondary schools with great athletics teams. Want something more small town? We have one of the biggest, permanent Farmer's Markets in the country not to mention dozens and dozens of small towns all within a half hour drive from the downtown core. In my mind, it's a perfect city.

Or it was, until Wednesday. I've lived here for a grand total of 13 years. Wednesday is the very first time I've ever questioned my safety here. It's the very first time I haven't felt safe in my own city. And that is a sickening feeling. When I left work that day, I walked a little faster. I paid more attention to my surroundings and more to the point, I paid a lot more attention to the people around me. The man responsible for carrying out the attack on Ottawa wasn't an immigrant. He wasn't some bitter transplant from another country. He was born here. He was raised here. He was a Canadian. And that upsets me so much more than if it had been someone from some where else. He had the opportunity to grow up in this amazing country. He got to experience what freedom and democracy are. He lived in a country that had great social services and access to things like doctors, dentists, specialists etc... without huge price tags. And yet, somehow, he got it in his head that the Canada that I know and love isn't the amazing country that the rest of us know it is. He decided that he needed to attack it. And that's the part that hurts the most. 

Yes, we're not the global "boy scouts" that we were once known as being. Over the last couple of decades, we've taken on a much more aggressive role on the world's stage than the peacekeeping role we were once known for, but I think we're still a peaceful nation at heart. We all have to stand up for ourselves and stand up for those who can't look after themselves, right? I'm not going to get into whether or not I think our troops should be over dropping missiles on militants on the other side of the world but I am going to say that despite everything that has happened this week, I have never been prouder to be a Canadian.

I was going to have lunch in our food court today, but I decided that the weather was too nice to hide indoors. I also needed the chance to walk around my city again and to be reminded that it is still a safe place to live. My office is on the opposite side of Parliament from where the attack took place, so things are calmer in my area. My walk at lunch was a peaceful one. I enjoyed seeing all the other people out and about, doing the same thing that I was doing: enjoying the nice weather and our collective freedom. 

To the two soldiers that lost their lives this week, Patrice Vincent and Nathan Cirillo - thank you both for your dedication and service to Canada. And to their families - my deepest sympathies and condolences.

It's time for our country to pick itself up, dust ourselves off and show the world that we are still the true north strong and free and that this country is full of millions and millions of people who are very proud to call ourselves Canadian. 

Good Night.

Sarah

Canadian War Memorial in August 2014

                               

It's Called Winter In Canada People!!

Welcome to winter ladies and gentlemen.

So the weather was a wee bit on the crazy side today. About 25-35cms of cold, white, blowing sideways crazy. But I still prefer this to the freezing rain. I lucked out with my buses today and didn't have to wait long going to work or coming home from work. They buses were running so late that they were almost on time. Just the drivers were different :) Ottawa is still under a snowfall warning. We'll probably see another 3 or so hours of it before it tapers off and the skies clear. We're in for one beautiful weekend though. The sunshine after the storm.

I don't understand the whole brouhaha about this storm. While it's being billed as the biggest one in 4 years, this is Canada. It's winter. This is what happens. It shouldn't come as a great surprise to anyone. It happens every year. And yeah, it's been snowing for 24 hours straight and yes, it was damn windy. It still isn't anything unexpected. It's not like a level 5 hurricane blew through or anything. And it's no where near as destructive as the ice storm was so many moons ago. I made sure I had on my warm winter boots, my warm coat, mittens, a scarf and my warm fleece hood. I walked slowly and watched where I was going. It's how we deal. It's a snow storm people, not the end of the world. The east coast is going to get it much worse than we did.

And a special thanks goes out to my buddy Cam for calling me and telling me how warm and sunny it is in Calgary today. I'll return the favour in May when the mountain throw a snow storm at you guys and we're +12 and sunny :) Hope you found Jen!

Other than having to go out in the storm 4 times today, it was a good day at work. The day flew by and I'm very tired. My friggin' sinuses are pissing me off and it's getting very annoying. If things aren't better by Monday, I think I'm going to have to go and see my doctor. This morning I couldn't wear my glasses because they were pressing on my right sinus, which was causing pressure, which lead to pain and then it lead to my nose dripping like a tap. And my eye watering. I haven't worn eye make up in a week!!

I am very much looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. I have a whole mess of house work to catch up on. Sounds like a thrilling Saturday for me.

I think it's time for bed. I know, I'm such a party animal!!

Good Night!

Sarah

This was 5 years ago but you get the idea.

Cookies And A Deep Freeze

I had a pretty good day at work. I was in a training session today (and it continues tomorrow) and the session is going really well. The guys running it are great and really laid back and the stuff we're learning is pretty interesting so it's keeping my attention. Hopefully I remember everything and can apply my knowledge soon.

As a result of training, I actually got to leave work at a normal time.I did a quick tour through Walmart ( I forgot half the stuff I wanted to buy, so it must not have been important ) and found a very nice top on the clearance rack for $7. So that was a nice discovery. After that, I headed home and made dinner.

For the last couple of weeks, I've been craving chocolate chip cookies. I don't really know why. Since there wasn't anything good on tv tonight, I decided to bake. My apartment smells wonderful and I have a nice pile of home made cookies in my kitchen. I think I'll take some to my training session tomorrow and share with my fellow classmates. And the instructors of course.

It's been a long time since I've felt like baking. I love doing it just haven't had the desire. I'm taking this as a positive sign. Engaging in activities that I enjoy is the sign of a happy person. The next step on the improvement list is getting out more. Interacting with other human beings more. That one is going to be a bit of a dozy, seeing as I do love my alone time. I suppose that's why the experts say that we need to step outside of our comfort zone. I've been very chatty with the others in my training session, so that's good too :)

Little positive steps every day. Oh! And I managed not to freeze today, despite the temp being -39C when I left this morning and then being -35C when I came home. Stupid weather. Ottawa was the coldest Capital City in the world today. Novosibirsk, the capital of  Siberia, was warmer than us!! Heck, even Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut in Canada's North was warmer than Ottawa. If you threw a pitcher of boiling water into the air, snow would form. The tried it on the local news at 6pm and it worked. LOL. Insane. Tomorrow should be slightly warmer at -27. Lucky us.

I'm going to go and crawl into my warm bed and dream of spring now.

Good Night!

Sarah

I was more bundled up today than I was in this photo!

Christmas Lights and Beavertails

I feel like a bit of a rebel. I stayed out quite late this evening, especially since I have to work tomorrow. LOL. It's funny. I'm a grown woman and can come and go as I please yet I still think it's naughty or whatever to stay out late on a "work night". I know, crazy. As I was coming in my neighbour down the hall was heading out to hockey so I guess I'm not all that late.

It was a very fun evening. Myself, Xtina and 3 co-workers all headed up to Parliament Hill to see the kick off celebrations for "Christmas Lights Across Canada". They were very nice.

It started with someone doing a mini-concert on the Peace Tower Bells and then a youth choir sang (they were really good) and there were a few speeches, more singing, and then they lit the lights and some fireworks went off and the capital was all lit up.

We all managed to get candles too, so that we could be part of the "lights" on the hill. I'm pretty sure everyone of us got wax on ourselves and/or out mitts/gloves.

 

 

 

 

After the show, we did a quick tour of the back of Parliament Hill and then went to the Chateau Laurier to warm up and see the Trees of Hope. One of us attempted to turn the hotel into a wax museum but dropping not one, but two candles on the floor, each of which left a nice pile of hard wax behind. And it wasn't me. I swear.

 

Once warm, we opted to hit up the Beavertail stand since the line up on the Hill had been way too long.

So off we went. Despite it being friggin' cold, we all took off out mitts to each the wonderful creation that is the Beavertail. I had apples and cinnamon on mine and it was amazing. I haven't had a Beavertail in about 2 years so it was a real treat. Factor in that I was really hungry and cold and that made the Beavertail seem like the most delicious thing ever.

We then decided that we needed real food so we wandered over to the mall and ate at the restaurant there. It was very nice. They stuck us downstairs next to a group having an office Christmas party so we had a little bit of entertainment along the way. Atleast I think it was a Christmas party. Who knows.

All in all, it was a great evening/night spent with some very cool people. We got to participate in a some very Canadian activities, kept re-lighting each other when the damn wind kept blowing our candles out, player tourist, got a little sticky, had some good food and had quite a few laughs. That's definitely my kind of fun. Except for the cold. That wasn't very nice. LOL.

Good Night!

Sarah