I am a summer rain person, but most definitely not an autumn rain person. Autumn rain means socks and shoes and pants and no, just no. I like my sandals, I like my skirts, I like how summer rain smells.
Today, there is autumn rain.
I woke up set to slo-mo, but at the same time can't sit still. There are things I need to focus on, but the mind, it jumps around and settles on nothing.
Autumn rain just leaves me somewhere in-between.
I upgraded my cell phone to a camera phone this weekend, and I'm having lots of fun now that the MMS is activated. :) Now I'm in search of a ringtone I like. I might start a moblog or add a folder to my photo gallery for camera phone pics.
A friend of mine is right: I'm never going to be finished school.
I don't mean this in the sense that I'm never going to be finished this degree. No, I will be, soon actually, with a second framed piece of paper to hang above my fireplace. You know, provided I get myself into gear, finish writing my paper and survive my paper defense and all. But I won't be done. I don't think I can be. I didn't realize until this week, as I sat there in the class I'm taking this term, how much I missed it. I'd been working on and occasionally tearing my hair out about my research paper this summer, but forgot how much I enjoy sitting there with other people, discussing things I probably wouldn't be discussing in many other places unless I was recounting it for somebody, my mind opening to and processing new ideas. It's like being awake on some other level; like being more alive.
Not that my day-to-day life isn't. That's just it. I love my job, almost ridiculously much when I actually think about it. It has become, over time, the perfect blend of web development, proofreading, editing and writing, and communications, all the things that I love to do and have both been doing for over a decade (or in the case of writing, since I was about 3 or 4), and that I went to school for. I love how my group functions, how much they care.
The school/work balance is something that creates harmony for me. Yes, I will get stressed from time to time (especially around seminar or term paper time, and particularly so if all this coincides with end-of-fiscal), but in a way, it's like both of these elements are entirely necessary for me to thrive.
My class this term is, for me, like heaven in a seminar room. Why? Because it's about cybertext. I am in lurve.
I'm kicking it at home this weekend, working on my paper and doing the reading for my class. The last four weekends (and weeks) have been wonderfully busy, but I like this feeling of settling back into something.
Will the Ben Mulroney run-ins never cease? Sigh. (See my February or March 2005 archives for why I say this if you don't already know, can't remember which month I posted about that during.) It wasn't quite like LAX but I did run into him at the lobby of the Four Seasons this afternoon.
In a much, much, much better and happier sighting, also saw Orlando Bloom today.
No, this doesn't really fascinate me, but cool nonetheless.
Anywho, should go now. Have a great weekend, everyone.
Oooh, price gouging makes me mad. Driving to work this morning, I passed two gas stations. One was $1.26/litre, which, when checking with OttawaGasPrices.com, is the norm for within the city, so that's fine. (Some stations in the Ottawa Valley are lower, though.) The other station was $1.34-something/litre. Which? Is 8 cents/litre more than the highest gas prices in the rest of the city. I did the math, for my American friends, this would work out to $4.29 US/gallon, or $5.08 CDN/gallon. I don't know if this is the going price this morning, all I know is it's a lot higher than the rest of the city -- if we were in gallons instead of litres, they would be 30 cents per gallon more than any other station at this time.
I think they can do this because where this particular station is, there aren't really any stations nearby to compare with. And it's the long weekend, so people will be filling up.
So here's what I think: any gas stations that are caught price gouging should have to donate those profits to a relief fund for the hurricane victims. I understand why gas prices are high right now and I'm not complaining about that. But to try and raise the price that much higher than the highest price in the rest of the city? You don't profit from a tragedy, morons.
A natural disaster in North America. Oil (and thus gas) prices skyrocketing. Hardly a happy tale on the morning radio news to be found. What a week.
I can't even imagine what it would be like to live through a natural disaster on that scale. Imagine, in one day, so much of what you depend on day-to-day just being gone. Your job, your home, your belongings, your expectations of daily life. Depending on family and strangers for their support as you begin to rebuild. Not knowing if you'll ever be going back there again. Everyone who is living through all this, regardless of any kind of emotional state they may find themselves in, are such strong people.
Here, in my little corner that only saw some rain for a few hours yesterday, life continues as normal, save for it costing a bit more to fill up my gas tank -- although I have to say, the second I saw a story on Sunday night about oil prices going up, I hopped in my car and filled up the tank at 94.9 cents/Litre. Otherwise, I attempt to work on my research paper whilst being wonderfully distracted by friends' parties (grad school get-together and a friend's 30th birthday bash), and this weekend I have a visitor. :) Next weekend I'm off to the Toronto Film Festival, getting together with some great peeps and taking in a world premiere.
After that, well, everyone returns to work and things gear up again, and the one class I'm taking this term begins. New people to be met, weekends and evenings to enjoy, and some crisp, clean fall air to revel in. I wish the weather would stay like that all fall and winter!
There's something about the end of the summer, something that speaks of change. Autumn is a time of renewal and to look ahead, to ponder where you're headed and what it is you really want. When the heat and humidity of August gives way to the clarity of September, the time for putting things off is gone.
