Eco Changeover

I have started a new project. I am slowly, as the old standbys are used up, moving over to eco friendly products for my body and for my home. I don't really know what I am doing. There is a bit of a learning curve here, I am learning that there are different chemicals found in regular moisturizers and shampoos that many many people dislike. I am learning that not everything that says "eco friendly" or "organic" is made from 100% natural ingredients. I am learning that things made from natural ingredients can also have ingredient lists that read like tongue twisters. I am also learning that no one has it all figured out. So I am learning as I go, and doing my best.

I picked up diswashing liquid today by ECOVER. It claims to be tough on grease.

I also picked up Frosty Mint toothpaste, which, once my colgate runs out, I will be trying out. This toothpaste points brings up one of the big issues with this eco changeover: It is 4 dollars more expensive than the regular brand I buy. Most nature friendly products are more expensive, but they also tend to have cuter pictures of animals on them. It's a trade off.

Jingle Bell Rock

When the radio station that plays at work gets switched to 24 hour Christmas, this can add heaps of pressure on someone who has yet to start her Christmas shopping.

balloons

I am currently trying to think of reasons that the large office tower across the street from me would have multiple floors decked with red, white and green balloons. They are attached to cubicle walls, filing cabinets and desks. I doubt it is for one person's birthday as a few floors have it. It could be for an Italy festival they are having, but I see no corresponding banners. And a month ago there was a similar balloon situation but they were all pink. This is most curious.

Christmas in the City

10:00 am on parade Sunday. The subway is filled with tiny people in Santa Claus hats, swinging their legs and shifting in seats, their excitement too big to keep inside. Regular riders don't complain when the swinging and the shifting result in kicked shin bones and jostled rides. The conductors ride with doors wide open, while wide-eyed children stare at the lights and buttons.

Santa is here people.

Dinner

Tonight I made a cous cous & tofu stir fry for dinner. Since I have made it many times with Peter, and since I called him before I started making it to get directions, it was no problem at all to make. A delicious time was had by all.

That is how the post should have gone. Instead it goes like this:


To make cous cous one should out it in boiling water that is just enough to cook it but no too much so it does not get soggy. I apparently erred too much on the soggy caution side. When I checked on my cous cous I discovered that instead of 'fluffin nicely' it was 'smoking' & 'burning'. And judging by the amount of smoke I would have to say it was making it's way quickly towards being on fire. The aftermath, was a lot of wasted cous cous and a charred pot. Once again I am glad I have not invested in an expensive pot set, as my charring days do not seem to be ending.


Round two of dinner making went much smoother, and was a lot more delicious.


In answer to my cousin's question: Book club is going great! We just had a meeting last night, we read Any Known Blood by Lawrence Hill. An interesting look at 5 generations of a family and the different difficulties they come up against.

Stair Climb

I did it! I did the stair climb! Completed it! All the way to the top! Even that bit that is just antenna! I suction cupped my way up that part. It was totally awesome. I am glad I completed something from my life list AND raised money for the United Way. And I got a T-Shirt! With my time on it! 23 minutes and 58 seconds. Which is an even faster time then I was expecting. And then there were waffles for breakfast. Oh yes, a good time was had by all

Le job Le Hunt

I frequenlty find job hunting frustrating. It seems to underline the fact that I have no idea what I want to do. The concept of it also empasizes that I am not where I want to be with my life and that I do not know where I want to be and that if I did know, I do not know how to get there. It also frequenlty makes me sad and grumpy. So I often avoid it.

Pretty Things and RL

I have been very much into dragon flies lately. I think because they have been on everything, clothes, bags, cards etc. Or perhaps they are just more salient because I am into them now (sometimes a psychology degree can be very tiresome).


I found this pretty item on etsy: necklace

And then I looked up dragon flies on flickr: up close!

and not to be annoying or anything, but they are not as pretty in Real Life.

But you know, they can actually fly. So that's like being better.

Fence Fence!

I had an awesome fencing practice tonight. This was the first practice in awhile that I actually felt like I was accomplishing something, and not just flailing about like a useless never fenced before idiot. And I actually got a good work out of the whole deal, so I am feeling pretty good.

I am doing the stair climb this Sunday! The CN Tower Stair Climb! What was once the tallest freestanding building, but then got usurped, but then got resurped when they made up a whole category, will be climbed by me! This Sunday! Not all the way up, that attenae part at the top is a little tricky, but as far as they let me go! I am hoping for a time in the low twenties, but we shall see what will happen.

This event, in addition to raising money for United Way, will be the first item crossed off my life list! This will be an exciting moment. Then perhaps a hot air balloon ride!

oh hey!

Have I mentioned that I have moved? Did I mention that I love my new apartment? Did I mention that my commute is the same to work, and faster to everything else? Did I mention that I have an oven? Did I mention that I have a washer and drier? Did I mention any of this? No???

My Bad

Advice For Italian Boys - Anne Giardini

I recently read Advice for Italian Boys by Anne Giardini, by the recommendation of the Toronto Public Library that had it listed as a 'Best Bets', and who am I to argue with the library.

The book focuses on the life of a 20 something Italin boy growing up in a town in Ontario. The driving story focuses on the main character trying to find his way in life while balancing the expecations, desires and advice of his family and friends. Relvoing around his story are the stories of his brothers, his parents, his grandmother and almost everyone he comes in contact with. Her explorations of the invidual characters read like beautiful stand alone stories but in the end layer together to build a thoughtful and elegent narrative. In this way Giradini acknowledges that no one exists in a vacuum, and that other people's experiences and actions can affect us in ways that can change our life direction.

Giardini's writing sets a slower tempo than what I have become accoustoumed to lately. Her descriptive and detailed writing bordered on lyrical. The read was satisfiingly slow, forcing my brain to ratchet back to a pace that is similar to what is achieved while on vacation.

I would recommend this book for a book club, for people who like stories that create an entire world and for someone who needs a mini mental break during their day.

That was fun wasn't it?

42 steps from the Street

Today my roommate and I gave our 60 days notice to move out of our current apartment. The one that smells like fish, pretty much all the time.

Can you believe it has been almost two years already?

I mean I remember when I had just moved in! And when I painted! And when I discovered a gas stove could kill me! All very exciting stuff.

I have found a new apartment! It involved a lot of agonizing.... A LOT. Ask Heather, she will inform you, much agonizing occurred.

I had been planning on living alone, but then my friend Emily called and asked if I would be interested in living with her and another girl. I almost said no, right off the bat, as living alone was the big dream. Then she said the glorious words: "laundry in the apartment" !!!! Not downstairs or nothing... but IN THE APARTMENT ITSELF!!!! So I agreed to check out the apartment. It is pretty nice. But very small. But in a great location! And has a doorman! And a gym! AND LAUNDRY IN THE APARTMENT.

After much agonizing (seriously, the amount of agonizing cannot be over emphasized, in fact any over emphasis would still be a huge underemphasis) and number crunching (two budgets were created, one where I lived alone and one where I took the apartment, and these budgets were compared to my current budget) I decided to take the apartment.


So the big question is: can I live in a small apartment with two other people and be happy?

"In the end, if you take care
You can be happy or unhappy anywhere"
- Lyrics from a sweet tune by Everything But the Girl

bookstores are always a good place to be

Afew months back one of my favourite podcasts included an awesome song as their outro. I loved it. I kept skipping back the minute and 56 seconds to listen to it. I tried searching the lyrics on the internet but I could not find that version. I gave up after an hour (I tried!) . Then only occasionally thought of it since then.

Last week I was half an hour early for dinner with friends, so stopped off at a bookstore to browse for awhile. I was on my eigth back-of-the-book read through when the song played over the soundsystem. The very nice counter clerk (and by very nice I mean she got all upset that I was interuppting her discussion with a co-worker) told me the soundtrack that was playing. The song, and all the songs on that CD are currently uploading to my iPod. Internet? bookstores win again.

In other news, I bought four lemons today. for a dollar. They are bright and yellow and happy. And only a 25 cents each.

In defence of sangria

In response to Peter: I am totally looking forward to Saturday Sangria, I think the missing part is looking forawrd to things like summer vacation and such.

There is a hole in my bucket, dear Liza a hole.

Christine would appreciate it if she had something to look forward to.*

Thank you.

* Please note that Christine acknowledges the need for an individual to be proactive in creating opportunities in his/her own life. She is just feeling a little bit run down at the moment.

The no blogging is as a result of the library

I haven't blogged much lately, and I blame the reading.

I have developed this habit of putting books on hold throught the library system. It started when I discovered that there is a library located right near a subway stop that is routinely on my way to other things (as opposed to the library that is near me, which is actually out of the way of my every day life) . I also found out that the library system will gladly bring books to the library of my choosing! I just go online, ask them to bring a book to my library AND THEY DO IT!!!! As a result of this I have read over 10 books in about three weeks.

I must say that for all the hype and all the people saying, that you have to read it because it will change your life, Eat Pray Love was still a really good read. And the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, also very good.

Odds and Ends

I spent today cleaning and tidying and organizing. Although I did not vacuum. I also listened to a lot of CBC Radio 2. It has yet to let me down. Oh! I also added my Life List to the blog. If I remember correctly it is over there --> ish. I had been meaning to add it for a while, and Ithought I was going to have to bust out my limited knowledge of html, and then blogger was all up ons with a widget for list making! Way to go blogger. The Life List is not complete but it does highlight my desire to learn how to dive. Not just dive once, but actually have the knowledge of how to do it over and over again, even if I haave not done it for awhile. My Dad has patiently spent hours trying to teach me (much like he did with bike riding) but it has not taken. The tricky bit is I refuse to learn in my pool at home, because it specifically says "no diving, shallow water, risk of paralysis" so you know, I'm weird like that.

Sunday Morning

Its Sunday morning and I am Heather's, abusing my unmonitored access to her laptop. She left for work already, I had to stay at the apartment as the subway does not run until after 9 on Sundays. It has been a good morning. There is sunlight, there is quiet and there is cats. And a pretty laptop. I feel like I am on vacation in Heather's life.

Book Club

I attended my first ever meeting of a book club! We were to have read Hunting and Gathering. By someone. It was a good book, very good. I should mention at this point that our book club is seriously considering being renamed Team Sangria.

I was one of two people who had read the book. This is the first book club I have ever been a part of. In fact my cousin is the only other person I can think of who is in a book club. Except my Mom, who does Bible study. Which is like being part of a book club, except you only really talk about the one book.

Okay my apartment smellls seriously funky as a result of my landloard. but still a very good day.

Mass murder on a Sunday Afternoon

For the past month our fridge has not been a pleasent area of the apartment to visit. Whenever the door was opened a smell wafted out that rivaled a composter. Turns out, it was because things were composting in there!

I cleared my schedual and for the first time since we moved in, our fridge got a thourough scrub down. All previous clean outs had been a simple matter of opening containers and seeing if there was new life growing in it. This cleanout included taking out all racking and drawers and washinging them/scrubbing them/scrapping the congealed mass of whatever the hell got stuck to them. And of course a whole bunch of moldy things were thrown out. I feel kinda bad, because those were a whole lots of new breeds of things I kind of killed. One of them may have cured the common cold. Or caused it.

In the end it turns out it was my ricotta cheese that was causing the unholy smell. It had somehow turned a weird shade of pink.

So much easier to find

I don't remember where it was that I heard it, if it was a passing comment by a DJ or am hilarious zing by a character on a sitcom. But someone, somewhere said; "What are you going to do? Stay home and alphabetize your Cd's?" in such a derisive tone it was more than clear that this was the epitome of pathetic. For some reason this comment has stuck with me. Whenever I get to thinking something like I should stay in and clean out my closet, this comment runs through the back of my mind.

I know I care too much about what people think. But recently I have started to realize how much I let what other people might think affect my life. I make choices as to what to do with my time and my resources based on how I believe other people will perceive me. This is not only unhealthy, but stupid. Realistically, no one really cares all that much.

I have decided that this needs to stop. It will be slow going probably, as old habits are hard to break, but I am going to make a concerted effort to stop imagining how other people will see my actions.

It is my Saturday night, and if I want to spend it organizing my shoes then that is what I will do. Because you know what? My Cd's ARE alphabetized! By CATEGORY! And you know what else? It's damn fucking efficient.

ART!

So I meandered into an art supply store while waiting to meet up with a friend. I tend to do this a lot, there is something about being around millions of different coloured pencils that makes me happy.

I wandered back into where they keep the preframed canvas. Lately I have been wanting to paint. I don't know why I have this urge. I haven't painted anything since nursery school. I have been fighting the urge because of the prohibitive cost of buying a canvas and other supplies. I wandered through the canvases in search of a price list. Did you know you can buy a canvas for like 5 bucks? That's practically free!!!

I am so buying a canvas and pretty paint and finger painting!

Internet, you are jealous.

An ode to some pants

A couple of years back I bought two pairs of jeans. Glorious jeans. They became my every day jeans. My, wear-them-to-breakfast-class-dinner-library jeans. I read textbooks in those jeans, went to parties and bars in those jeans, and on more than one occasion, slept in those jeans. Those two pairs of jeans have seen me through the last year of school, from the summer before it, straight through to two years after it. I wore a pair of them to drop off my resignation letter at Canadian Tire, and I wore a pair to my first day at work (I chagned when I got there) . These jeans have been on dates, been to exams, graduation parties and house warming parties. I moved into my apartment wearing one of these hardworking jeans. These were some damn good jeans.

About three months after I owned them I walked through the bottom of them, the cuffs were frayed beyoned repair. Over time the jeans started to fade, even some of the belt loops tore. But still we soldiered on my jeans and I. A month ago the zipper broke on one of them, one of the teeth fell off, stopping the zipper in its tracks. Two weeks after that I noticed that a hole had worn through the butt on the other pair. It appears my jeans knew my weak point, they claimed retirement because of their willingness to expose my underwear.

So two weekends ago, with my Mom's awesome help, I bought two new pairs of everyday jeans. They are the right size and length and colour. they have already been worn to work, out to dinner and to two house parties. They watched as our fencing team swept the OUA finals. I was wearing the boot cut version when I got some awesome news from a very good friend of mine. These jeans will see me through the next little while, they will go on dates, be worn to parties, concerts and movies. They will be worn to move into my new apartment, and they will be what I put on after my first day at work when I get my new job. I will change into a pair of them after my brothers' weddings. There will be a lot of good that will be seen in these two new pairs of jeans.

Dear Winter

Dear Winter,

We have had good times. I am not going to deny that. Like the calm that washes over everything with that first evening snowfall. The hilarious snowmen. The chance to bring out the winter wardrobe of hats and scarves, so long unworn that they feel new. Good times.

But sweetheart... it's over. I just don't feel the same way anymore. Your fresh white snow trick is no longer cute, it's just another inch on our overburdened roads. And yes it has been nice that your mercury dropping temperatures have deadened that weird ass smell that always comes in off the lake, but it's also deadened all the nerve endings in my fingers.

I know you think if we just try harder we can work this out, but I just can't do it anymore. I'm tired of compromising to you all the time. You just don't give winter, you always have to have it your way. I'm tired of wearing four layers okay?

Please don't cry though, you'll find someone new. Someone who hasn't heard all your jokes, someone who thinks slush is a cute 'quirk' . I wouldn't look at Africa though, she's pretty committed to summer, those two are very long term. But I hear Austrailia is back on the market.

See you around,

Christine

Not as much blood, but a lot more vitamins.

Today I ate a tangelo. It is a fruit I had never heard of, and certainly had never eaten. This week, as established spur of the moment yesterday while grocery shopping, is "Interesting Fruits Week". While not as edge of your seat as "Shark Week", it is, hopefully, much more delicious. Unless you like chum.

I have bought, a tangelo, plum tomatoes (I hear you nay sayers, saying they are vegetables, well they look like a fruit so they qualify to me), a peach, and a tangerine. These are fruits that I do not normally hang out with, but you know what, I have had all my stock in apples for a number of years, and as a result of this unpredictable economy I felt it was high time that I diversify.

Future Me

I wonder sometimes if me and friends will look back on these times with great fondness. If we will sit and reminise about all the layers we used to wear to go to sleep because none of our apartments could hold heat. Or that time one of us had a cockroach problem. Times when things were simpler.

So many mysteries solved

So I have spent the past few days trying to figure out where my punch bowl, with remnants of sour cream and salsa dip, went after the party. Our apartment is not that big, and I had looked in all the logical places.

Recently another mystery developed, why in the hell did our fridge smell funky?

Turns out the two mysteries were very related, and in solving them I also found the answer to a third question that I had never asked! Is the fruit crisper big enough to throughly hide a large punch bowl filled with dip detrius? YES! Is this a good idea? HELL NO.

I can only blame the drinking.

Party and such

I am having a lazy day today. Watching a lot of Charmed, a show I was totally addicted to in high school. It's soundtrack is filled with songs from the first few years in high school, it's a bit odd, hearing these songs, that were hip enough at the time to qualify for appearing on a tv show, but most really have not survived well over time. But it does give me unusual flashbacks where I realize that I am lot further from high school than I realized, which makes me both happy and feel startilingly old.

My party was a sucess, it was nice and cozy, and everyone seemed to have a good time. I relaxed after the food was prepared, and after I drank a couple inches of vodka.