Thief alert!
Jun 17, 2010 Rant
Someone stole our door mat!
I know, it sounds utterly ridiculous, doesn’t it? I mean, everyone has a door mat and to my knowledge, nobody ever had to use a bike lock to keep it at their door. Who goes around thinking “Oh, what a nice door mat, it would look really good right by my azaleas, I think I’ll bring it home”.
But there’s worse: I live in a housing coop. In a closed building. You need a key to get to my floor. Which means that my mat was stolen either by a neighbor (and I know most of them), or by one of their visitors. Granted, I wouldn’t trust every one of my neighbors. But still, who does that?
When I noticed the theft on Tuesday morning, I gave whoever took it the benefit of the doubt: maybe someone’s cat or dog peed on it and someone their owner wants to wash it before returning it. But even someone as naive as I am didn’t really believe it. And after two whole days, now, I figure it has probably disappeared forever.
But who can be so desperate that they feel the need to steal a door mat? I wish I knew!
Love thy neighbour
Jun 4, 2010 Family life, Rant
I live in a Co-op, so I know most of my (90) neighbors. Some of them are amazing and have become good, like-minded friends. Many are decent people that I will never be friends with but that I respect and can happily live next to. And then there are the other ones… Some are weird or plain mean, some don’t do their fair share of work (there is a reason we pay so little rent in a Co-op) and some are just… annoying. Like my next-door neighbors.
I’m sure some of the annoyance I feel can be chalked up to cultural and age differences. My neighbors are in their late 80s or 90s. And to be honest, they are really nice people. They just annoy the crap out of me. One example: a few years ago, the woman told Zak: “You should tell your wife that she needs to sweep in front of your door. Nobody does it here, you have to do it yourself”. She told me later that she swept her front door every day. Two things here: Zak is a big boy and is just as able as I am to sweep the front porch. But that one is obviously a cultural/age difference thing. The other thing is: I cannot bring myself to care. Sure, we should probably sweep a few times a year. But we can barely manage to vacuum the living room, where we actually live and play, once a week. Like I’m going to sweep my front porch every day (or week, for that matter)!
Another thing I find really annoying is how the man still treats my son like he’s a baby (or a dog I guess). When he sees him, he’ll talk to him in that very loud, babyish voice and dangle his keys in front of his nose, repeating “You want my keys?” again and again. My son usually hides behind my legs and looks at me, speechless, with silent “What the hell does he want?” pleas in his eyes. I mean, we’re talking about a boy 2 months short of his third birthday who can quite easily explain to you how rocket-ships launch and then shed their boosters (I know I always use the same example, but I find it fascinating). He’s not 6 months old anymore (although the behaviour already seemed annoying and borderline offensive when he was). And you know you won’t actually let him have your keys. So please, stop already!
All that to say that I usually try to avoid having conversations with my neighbors. As I said, they are super-nice. They will put things they don’t want anymore on our doorstep to see if we want them (and then WE are stuck getting rid of their junk). They put an (ugly) doormat on our front porch a few times (probably to hide the dust I don’t sweep). They even offered to babysit (yeah, right)!
But we also had to tell them to remove the moth balls they had put all around their front porch. They were trying to get rid of neighborhood cats who pee on their door step. I understand their annoyance. But we had a dog – and now a child – who could die or at least get seriously ill from swallowing one of those. Not good.
Last weekend, we received the annual shipment of dirt at our Co-op. We are supposed to spread the fresh dirt on Co-op plants, but we can also take some for our own plants, especially those that we maintain on Co-op property. I went downstairs to play in the dirt pile with my son, somewhat helping to spread it around. When we came back up, my neighbor was putting fresh dirt in her plants. She asked “You don’t want any mud?”. I quickly muttered “We don’t need it, thanks” before slipping inside. I probably didn’t look too happy, as I was in a hurry to change my son out of his muddy boots and coat so we could get to the store and buy bread for lunch, and he was non too pleased with being interrupted in his dirt-spreading game.
When I came back out 10 minutes later, my neighbor said something I didn’t understand (eh, neither of us has English as their first language), so I kinda smiled (admittedly, probably halfheartedly) and said nothing. That’s when she said “You never smile, you never say anything?” At first, I thought she was talking about my son. He’s kinda shy around them (could he possibly be picking up some vibes from us?) so he tends not to say much. I answered “Oh no, he can talk very well when he wants to!”. That’s when she said “No, you, you’re always so serious.”
I was stunned. That seemed so rude to me. What could I say? I think the elevator arrived and I was saved from really answering anything, but… I don’t know. I guess it made me feel bad, too, because it made me realize that I haven’t been that nice to them, and although they annoy the crap out of me, they are really nice, decent people. They just don’t have the same background as I have and act differently. I should be more tolerant. And I guess I have been tired lately and not on my best and most smiley behavior. On the other hand, is it just me or was it not something you should say to people who are not close friends or family members? What could I have said?
I don’t care about hockey…
Apr 16, 2010 Miscellaneous, Rant
In this period of hockey play-offs, I had to come clean. I really don’t care about hockey.
It wasn’t always like that. I followed hockey religiously until May 25, 1995. The day the Nordiques were sold to American interests. Until that day, I had been a huge fan of the Québec team – I watched or listened to every game, I knew the name and the number of every player, I went to as many games as I could afford, I had even worked for the team, although in the very unglamorous position of program seller, which meant mostly dressing in a skirt and putting up with drunk men asking us if they could buy us with the program.
Then my beloved team moved to Colorado. You have to understand that growing up as a fan of the Québec Nordiques meant growing up to hate the Montréal Canadians – it was part of the job description. So I hated Montréal with a passion, and when Québec was left without a team, so was I. I couldn’t possibly start rooting for the devil (Montréal) when I had spent the first 18 years of my life hating it. To make things worse, after years and years of cheering for a team that wasn’t going anywhere, “my” team went on to win the Stanley Cup for Colorado. I was devastated.
Ant that was the end of it. I was without a team, so I found other ways to spend my time. I also grew up and started wondering if professional sports were actually worth all the money and energy people spend on them. Questions started popping into my head, questions like, if all these people spent all that energy to solve the world’s worst problems instead of watching hockey for hours, how much better off would the world be? And with that in mind, I never watched a full hockey game again.
Now it’s playoff season. Both the Canadians and the Canucks won their first game last night. I know that because they talked about it on the news, but I really don’t care. On one hand, I wish the Canucks luck because their successes bring money and ambiance to my town. But they’re not “my” team. They are mercenaries, very well paid to PLAY A GAME! So on the other hand, I kinda wish they lose so we can start talking about something else.
Now I guess I should go buy an umbrella to protect myself from the tomatoes people are going to start throwing at me! And maybe next time I’ll tell you all about how I used to love baseball – until the Montréal Expos were sold to American interests…
Disapointment
Feb 22, 2010 Family life, Rant
After starting the Olympics on a good note with a great show last weekend, we wanted to go see another show on Friday. Lennie Gallant. He’s a folk singer from Atlantic Canada, very soft music, I love him. Well, he was playing at LiveCity Yaletown and there were so many people waiting in line at 3:30 – for the 7:30 show that we had to give up. The most frustrating thing was that the people in the crowd were mostly 18 to 20-year-olds, who most likely didn’t care at all about Lennie Gallant. They were there for the DJ at 9:30. I wonder if anyone listened to Lennie Gallant or even cheered. It left me with a bitter taste in my mouth.
The line-ups are so long that it’s almost impossible to do any Olympic activity. Saturday we went to O-Zone in Richmond, where we were able to get in easily (we were there early), but there was really nothing to do. And you should have seen the line-up for Holland-Heinecken House! We had to wait in line to take the SkyTrain back (it took only 20 minutes, but still), the street are so packed downtown that it’s almost scary walking there with our son. Yesterday we did manage to see the Native Craft Village, which was nice, but not the Aboriginal Pavilion (the line-up was crazy). In the end, the only nice thing I’ve seen of the Olympics is the sunny weather and the buskers. They are good, free, and you can usually maneuver around enough to see them.
Last night we went to Granville Island to see a show by a Quebec group, Les Cowboys Fringants. The show was supposed to start at 7:30. The site is large, there is no security, so we were able to get in at 7:30. But it was the end of the previous show. All in all, a good thing, because their music was really good. Then they finished at 7:50ish, and the main group didn’t start until 8:30. We had already decided to leave at 9 since I work very early and we had brought our son, who is usually in bed by 7:30. In the half hour of show I saw, the group didn’t manage to play any of their biggest successes. I guess they kept them all for the end. But I was really disappointed.
People are saying that the ambiance around the city is amazing, and it’s true, it’s pretty crazy. I have never seen that many people in the streets. But it makes it really hard to see anything, do anything or get anywhere. It’s just not really enjoyable. Maybe if I didn’t have a child and had nothing else to do but wait in line all day, I’d find it amazing. Right now, I find it slightly annoying!
Summary of my work week…
Dec 11, 2009 Rant, Uncategorized
Well, that was a few weeks ago, but I forgot to post it…
Monday: Hi Sophie, client A asked if we could deliver project B earlier than planned. We’ve already said yes. I know it shows in the task manager that this change will have you do 20 hours of overtime this weekend, but it will take you less time than planned, right? Of course, you will have to do some overtime this weekend in order for us to meet the new deadline we agreed to without asking for your opinion. But not too much overtime, we hope…
Tuesday: Miss N, who was doing half of project B, has been “volunteered” for another, more important mission. She will be busy all day tomorrow for something that has to do with the Olympics, so it has priority. We found a contractor to do her half of project B, and we gave them a part of your half, too, so you’re off the hook for overtime. Actually, you even have free time now according to the task manager. So here are projects C, D and E. You’ll have time to do them, right?
Wednesday: Well, it seems like Miss N will be stuck with this Olympics project for the foreseeable future, so you’ll have to take on projects F, G and H that she was supposed to do this week and next. I’m sorry for the overtime you’ll have to do this weekend.
Thursday: Miss P is sick and she was supposed to do projects I and J today. You’ll have to do them. But it’s ok, because Miss N will be here tomorrow after all, so she’ll be able to take back project F and G. Or at least one of those. We think. We’ll know for sure tomorrow. In the meantime, try to ignore what the task manager tells you about all the overtime you’ll have to do. Oh, and by the way, the work we sent to contractors? Yeah, project B, but also projects K, L and M? We had problems with our email, so the work was never sent, and the contractors didn’t know it was coming, so we just found out today. That means we have to postpone the contractor’s deadline, because he now has one or two days less to do the work. But it will be done in time for the client’s deadline, it just means you’ll have less time for quality insurance next week. A lot less time.
Friday: Guess what? Miss N is still stuck on the Olympics project today, in the end. So you’ll keep all your projects, plus project O that we thought she’d be able to do today. But she’ll be here on Monday, at least we think she will, so she should be able to do project F. At least it’s likely. We’ll see on Monday. Try to have a nice weekend while ignoring that if things stay as they are, you have about 60 hours of work to do next week…
And then people laugh at public servants, saying that they are lazy and never work. Well, some are (I’ve seen it), but let me tell you: this week, I’ve earned my salary, if only for the accumulated stress.
The thing about Tiger Woods…
Dec 4, 2009 Rant
So I’m sure everyone is sick of hearing about Tiger Woods at this point. Me too. But something bothers me with this story, and it’s not what everyone is talking about.
I couldn’t care less whether or not he cheated on his wife. It’s none of my business (or yours) and it’s not unexpected. Most people cheat on their spouses at some point in their life. And if Woods wants to apologize to the population for failing his family, it’s his right.
What bothers me is what nobody is talking about: even if he has cheated on his wife, it doesn’t give her the right to assault him! I know, we don’t know for sure (and maybe never will) if he caused his accident himself or if he was running away from his wife, and whether his injuries were only a result of the car crash or were also caused by his wife’s fury. He may be protecting her like so many beaten wives protect their husbands. But reverse the situation in your head for a minute: Tiger Wood’s wife crashes her car while running away from him who, furious because she cheated on him, just gave her a black eye. But she is looking for forgiveness so she sticks to the official version. How funny would that be? How would it be treated in the media? How many papers would publish something entitled: “Tiger and his Tigress”?
It wouldn’t be funny. But when it’s a woman becoming aggressive towards her man, somehow, it seems that it’s not a big deal. It’s sexy. Grrr…
I don’t think it’s funny.
Fatigué!
Zak a suivi un cours toute la fin de semaine et je me suis donc retrouvée seule avec mon fils. J’en ai profité pour écouter de la musique en français, et comme ma musicothèque est mal garnie, j’ai échoué sur YouTube à écouter tous les clips de Renaud que je pouvais trouver. J’ai eu un grand moment de nostalgie en écoutant la chanson Fatigué, qui m’a tellement marquée à l’adolescence. Avec le recul, c’est sûr que c’est pas mal naïf, mais c’est toujours d’actualité :
Jamais une statue ne sera assez grande pour dépasser la cime du moindre peuplier et les arbres ont le coeur infiniment plus tendre que celui des hommes qui les ont plantés Pour toucher la sagesse qui ne viendra jamais j'échangerais la sève du premier olivier contre mon sang impur d'être civilisé responsable anonyme de tout le sang versé
Fatigué, fatigué fatigué du mensonge et de la vérité que je croyais si belle, que je voulais aimer et qui est si cruelle que je m'y suis brûlé Fatigué, fatigué
Fatigué d'habiter sur la planète terre sur ce grain de poussière, sur ce caillou minable sur cette fausse étoile perdue dans l'univers berceau de la bêtise et royaume du mal où la plus évoluée parmi les créatures a inventé la haine, le racisme et la guerre et le pouvoir maudit qui corrompt les plus purs et amène le sage à cracher sur son frère
Fatigué, fatigué fatigué de parler, fatigué de me taire quand on blesse un enfant, quand on viole sa mère quand la moitié du monde en assassine un tiers Fatigué, fatigué
Fatigué de ces hommes qui ont tué les indiens, massacré les baleines et bâillonné la vie, exterminé les loups, mis des colliers aux chiens qui ont même réussi à pourrir la pluie La liste est bien trop longue de tout ce qui m'écoeure depuis l'horreur banale du moindre fait divers il n'y a plus assez de place dans mon coeur pour loger la révolte, le dégoût, la colère
Fatigué, fatigué fatigué d'espérer et fatigué de croire à ces idées brandies comme des étendards et pour lesquelles tant d'hommes ont connu l'abattoir Fatigué, fatigué
Je voudrais être un arbre, boire l'eau des orages me nourrir de la terre, être ami des oiseaux, et puis avoir la tête si haut dans les nuages qu'aucun homme ne puisse y planter un drapeau Je voudrais être un arbre et plonger mes racines au coeur de cette terre que j'aime tellement et que ce putain d'homme chaque jour assassine je voudrais le silence enfin, et puis le vent...
Fatigué, fatigué Fatigué de haïr et fatigué d'aimer surtout ne plus rien dire, ne plus jamais crier fatigué des discours, des paroles sacrées Fatigué, fatigué Fatigué, fatigué fatigué de sourire, fatigué de pleurer fatigué de chercher quelques traces d'amour dans l'océan de boue où sombre la pensée Fatigué, fatigué