Played basketball yesterday in a game that was much more intense than the moving day one - now I ache all over. Some of the places I ache are places where I want to develop the muscles more, so that's good, but the bizarre ache (which actually started yesterday) is the right bicep...likely from shooting (or the game of frisbee before basketball - another sport I'm not so good at). A few bruises - again, probably from the frisbee more than anything, but we also picked up a sixth player in the park to even out our numbers, and this guy was big! Felt like I just didn't exist a few times when trying to guard him and there was one point where I literally bounced offa him and into one of the other players!

Enjoyed myself thoroughly, but need to get better at the game to really make it interesting.

A year ago today I entered this country, so I thought today might be good day to blog about the experience since at the time, I did not have a blog, and I was in no state to even comment on the process.

A year ago, about this time of day, I was viewing the fantastic beauty of Niagara Falls, but I wasn't as impressed with the spectacle as I think I might have been in a different situation since I was very focused on the big step we were going to take in crossing the border. While I've crossed the Canada-U.S. border many times as a tourist, this would be the first time I had taken a more permanent (yet still of course temporary) step of crossing with the purpose of living here for four or five years. And I was nervous about whether we had all the proper papers etc. Part of that nervousness no doubt had to do with the fact that the reason we had the time to view the falls, and do all the touristy things people do in Niagara, was because we were waiting that morning for our visas to arrive by fedex at the B&B we had stayed at the night before. We were cutting it close! We had also heard horror stories about trucks being ripped apart (I had a complete and extensive inventory of every box inside ours), and of course I was moving with my children, who although I have sole custody, were still going to be leaving one parent behind, and I wasn't sure if that would be a problem. It wasn't at that time, but the next time we went home for a visit, the agent at the New Brunswick/Maine border had a problem with us all having different last names.

Come to think of it, the last time I needed a visa to travel, we did much the same kind of waiting thing. When my family went to Brasil in the seventies, we spent three or four days in a Toronto hotel room waiting for visas from the consulate and hopped on a plane pretty much as soon as we got them (that was a long flight - Toronto to Rio!). Another similarity that hadn't ocurred to me till now was that we arrived in Sao Paulo the night before my dad had to go to work. We arrived in the Boston area the day before Dwayne started classes too.

By the end of the afternoon a year ago, we had waited and been cleared by the INS office and were on our way through upstate New York. We camped along the highway that night, and the next day, I spent much of it on the phone calling places whose ads I had downloaded from craigslist at the public library in Niagara the day before. I drove and dialled while Sandy read out phone numbers and wrote down answers and/or directions. I soon realized what the housing market was like as we drove since many of the places that had advertised the day before, were already taken by the time I was calling the next day. And I imagine the 403 area code of my cell phone put off most of the others who I left messages for. By the time we arrive in Eastern Mass late afternoon of the 31st, we were down to two places - the one we just moved out of, and one out in another community that the landlord said had someone looking at it that evening. Knowing the communities a bit better now, I'm glad we didn't even bother looking at the other place - not only did they likely rent it that night, but it also isn't a great area to live in.

We arrived in Watertown around 5 pm having gotten directions from the landlord, and pieced together those directions with the map. [Rush hour is never a good time to drive a moving truck in an unfamiliar city that has incredibly narrow streets!] We looked at the place, went to the local mall to look for a paper or additional ads, drove back, told them we'd like to take it, pulled out our references, credit report, traveller's cheques, and when they said it all looked good, asked them if we could bunk there for the night (even though the 1st wasn't till the next day). At the time, my predominant feeling was exhaustion and stress, but now that I look back, it must have seemed amusing to the landlord with these crazy Canadians showing up with a moving van full of stuff and landing on their doorstep. He tells me that he loves telling the story of how we, their first tenants (they had just bought the building a couple of months before) arrived. Now that those bad days are over, I enjoy telling the story of how we arrived too, dialing up potential landlords saying 'I'll arrive in town in about three hours, can I come and see the apartment then?' , but it didn't seem funny at the time.

A lot has happened since then, and I can say that I now, finally, feel (mostly) comfortable here.

Was trying to explain to someone ten years younger than me what a 'pigeonhole' was because she had never seen that piece of office equipment/furniture.

Of course this reminded me again of the rate of change in society over the last few decades. Yes, yes, I know it's just the disappearance of pigeonholes that we're talking about here, after all, pigeonholes aren't what you could really call obsolete technology, but it still amazes me that a colleague who's only ten years younger than me has in many ways had a very different experience of the workplace. And my students have an even different view - they grew up with voicemail and e-mail - handwritten phone messages are a thing of the past - even at home!

Makes me feel older than I really am... or maybe I've just been obsessing over passing the 'early thirties' mark into the 'late thirties' one... and my career really has yet to begin. [My inability to accept additional employment/experience outside of my home institution doesn't help make me feel better about getting older and older with fewer and fewer opportunities].

Enought of that - I promise not to talk about age for at least a week!

Life still doesn't feel quite normal yet - and while this move is not a joltingly disturbing as the last one - it certainly has been more disruptive than I would have imagined before it began. Having said that, things are starting to look a little more normal and the box/furniture ratio is decreasing...there are parts of the house that almost look their normal chaotic selves! This move is certainly going to benefit the kids the most. They are the ones who really win out as far as space goes...but all of us will feel like we have a bit more elbow room. Just the fact that you can go to another level where there might only be one other person will help give the impression that you have more room, and that will help a lot when we're trying to study in the middle of winter and you can't escape outside so easily.

Getting near the end of term - which, as usual, is good and bad. Good in that I will soon have a couple of weeks in which I only have to prep for fall, and bad in that I have much to do; lots of student papers to read, and my own paper that I've been putting off with the excuse of the move. I'll have to plan some workdays this week.

Feeling kinda homesick today and I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe just because so much is up in the air with the moving, maybe just 'cause I'm missing the girls some, maybe 'cause I talked to my sister yesterday...I just don't know.

All I know is that I keep thinking about home today. When one of the students in my class who is doing a project on nuclear energy asked me whether there was the same level of fear in Canada as the U.S. about nuclear energy, I of course thought of home. And then when I went to get some lunch and realized that I would get both change and bills back after paying the bill, I missed loonies & toonies (and it sure didn't take me long to get used to change again when we were Nova Scotia earlier). But neither of these things in and of themselves should make me homesick - I have people ask me all the time about Canada, and I've certainly gotten used to dollar bills again (at least I'm old enough to have remembered them in Canada).

Don't know why I'm missing home, but I am. Maybe 'cause I haven't heard from any friends for a long time... I wonder if they still think of me....

Maybe I'm just starting to feel like I'm not going to get ahead here - what with the setbacks I've had in trying to get some extra employment. I applied for a scholarship a month ago - Dwayne heard back from them (unfortuntely he didn't get the scholarship), but they haven't even bothered contacting me. Don't I at least rate a PFO letter?

Big, fat raspberry -

Whew! Moving is almost complete... just the cleanup and a last car load of stuff....and then of course all the unpacking stuff.

Today I am feeling exhausted and sore - mostly from the weekend - I could barely move on Saturday! The computer printer at home decided to stop working (not because it was moved (at least I hope not) but because none of the ink cartridges seem to be working correctly) so I showed up at school almost six hours ago to print out a huge pile of things I needed. I still have another three hours here to put in here with student conferences and then unpacking to do at home. Ugh!

Yesterday was nice though - we took the day off of moving/packing/unpacking things because it was our anniversary and spent the day together exploring more of our new environment - yes, it still feels new and sometimes still a bit strange - topped off with a relaxing meal together...and then went home to find that the printer didn't work! Oh well... it was nice anyway.

The actual day that we set for moving was unbelievably ill-timed and plagued with bad luck. The plan was to pick up the truck late morning, drive out to the warehouse where the piano was stored, pick it up, meet friends at the house to unload that piano (2 and 1/2 hours), meet other friends at the old house to load up all the rest of the furniture, unload at the new house. Sounds simple doesn't it? And I thought we had it fairly well timed....

The problems started on Thursday when we found out we would have to go down to Dwayne's school to sign some papers Friday morning. We allowed an hour and a half for the travel to conduct this ten minute business. We barely made it out in time. We were still on schedule though and actually arrived at the truck rental ten minutes early. Unfortunately for us, there was only one staff member present and a simple pre-booked pick up took forty minutes. I hopped in the truck to drive out to the warehouse only to find that the quarter tank of gas that was supposedly in the truck was something closer to just above empty, and it was a diesel truck so I wasted time trying to find a station with diesel before I ran out of fuel.

Then when I got to the warehouse, there was one guy who was going to load the piano into the truck...which shouldn't have been a problem. But, the truck I was given didn't have an emergency brake, so it would roll away from the platform just enough that the ramp barely extended into the truck and the process now required two guys...and the first guy to go and find another one to offer help. So the loading took longer than expected as well.

And then the piano didn't quite fit through the door - it was a bit too long to take the corner (we're talking an inch or two at the most!).

As we were standing (in the pouring rain - only rain we've had for a week before or since then) with the piano impossibly wedged in the door, the guys who were supposed to deliver the fridge four hours later pulled up. And the laws of physics on this planet just do not allow a piano and a refrigerator through the same door at the same time....'specially when one is wedged in tight. Meanwhile, the second set of friends are waiting at the other house....

I need to be very, very nice to my moving friends for the next little while!

Good karma to the one refrigerator delivery guy (the young one, not the grouchy old guy who just sat in the truck and glared) who actually helped us lift the piano over the stair rail so that we could get it into the house and out of their way - wherever you are, you're a saint!

I even had enough energy left for a game of 21 with two of my mover friends (though my score was PATHETIC! they were both very nice about it).

The hassles were mostly from a businesses I had to deal with - the friends who helped us move made it one of the nicest moving days I have ever had - I think when it comes to moving, as long as you have a few cold ones around for the lull times, it's always a case of the more the merrier and not too many cooks spoiling the soup! Here's to our new home!

We're neck deep in moving, so I will only periodically have access to this site, but rest assured, I'm too busy to get into too much trouble!

Move over Rosie the Riveter - Michele is here & she and her wonderful husband sucessfully replaced the alternator in their car!

I'm rather proud of the accomplishment! Unfortunately the celebration of our first foray into the wonderful world of do-it-yourself [major] automotive repair was diluted by the fact that the alternator appears to not have been the only problem with the car since you can't run the A/C without losing power and stalling - and that's not a pretty prospect for a New England summer. But the good news is that the car should get us around town to work, play, and most importantly, for the move that's to take place this week. In older cars, you could just adjust the idle screw, but by the time our car was built in the early 90s the control of idle speed is mostly electronic and is influenced by the proper performance of no less than four separate sensors and three additional components - which of course is just the car company's way of getting you into their shop since you need a plethora of specialized equipment (and knowledge) to diagnose & fix such problems. I console myself in at least being mobile....

Good effort, but the beast has still got us stumped.

This has certainly been the kind of day that you would avoid if you knew it was coming ahead of time. It started out not too bad - I had a job interview first thing in the morning and would've been really psyched about it if it wasn't for the head cold that I'm still suffering through. But even though I didn't sleep well, I was pretty upbeat about the interview. I even managed to find the place with only one wrong turn!...which is admirable for me because I often miss turns more than once in a single trip to a new place, especially without a navigator.

The interview went really well - I didn't have a single coughing attack, and my nose only starting really getting stuffy at the very end of it (since I had heavily drugged myself before attending it - all the more reason to be surprised by how impressed the interviewer was). The interviewer said my resume was really impressive, that I seemed very energetic (one of his first questions was whether my HR position was full-time while completing my masters, which it was), and that he liked the cover letter and thought you could tell a lot about a person by the type of cover letter they write. After all the bad cover letters I've read, I should think I would be able to write a pretty good one!

He offered me a job on the spot - teaching a course that would be very similar to one of the courses that I taught last year, and I could even use the same textbook - talk about minimal prep! The campus of the college was gorgeous - a series of beautiful brick buildings nestled in the woods - very picturesque. I was delighted!

As I drove home I noticed that the battery light was on the whole way back... which wasn't a good sign since it was a brand new battery and it had been coming on periodically at low speeds or at an idle, but it would not go off - clearly I was running on battery power only and the alternator was not recharging it. Not a good sign. But I was heartened by the fact that the course I had just been offered would not only pay for the repair of the alternator, but the other $2000 we've spent fixing the damn car in the last few months...god! I wish we were still close to my brother in law! I barely made it home - I actually had to push the car the last couple of feet into the driveway 'cause it conked out with no juice whatsoever to restart it

[tell me how it is that the annoying reminder ping that you've left the door open and the keys in the ignition can still operate when there seems to be no electricity available to run anything else? mysterious, I say]

So why did I say that I would've avoided today if I could have? Because of what happened next...

As I was leaving the interview, I realized that we had spent over an hour together and that I would have no time to drive to school to meet with the International Student advisor about getting the visa I would need to accept this job. I was going to just drive to school, but the flickering battery light prompted me to decide to head home first and call to reschedule, which turned out to be a good decision since I would have otherwise been stranded somewhere in Newton instead of making it home. I had intended to meet with her yesterday, but when I showed up for the appointment, I was told it had been booked in error and I would have to come today (and make a special trip just for this meeting). The long and the short of that meeting was that I was told I could not accept the job I had just been offered without giving up my TA appointment. This was a new development and would not have been a problem in the days before SEVIS, but since the 9/11 terrorists came into the country on student visas, students are now evil creatures who must be strictly monitored and controlled.

The kicker of the afternoon is that if I had met with this woman yesterday as I was supposed to, I would not have gone to the interview, and the car would also not be dead.
(I'm trying strenuously to avoid swearing on my blog, but some days....)

To top it off, I got a lovely call from the warehouse where our piano has been stored for the last year (since we couldn't get it into our place) telling me that according to their records, I have not paid the handling fee for bringing the piano back out of storage, even though my receipt says that I have. So now I will have to argue with them when I go pick up the piano. I'm not looking forward to the extra hassle. I have had nothing but problems with these people - deal or no deal, they don't run a very good business.

I wonder what will happen in the next few hours before I finally make it to bed?

Exactly one week till central air conditioning! Yeah! I'm having a terrible time getting used to the combination of heat & humidity. I'm used to temps in the 30s, 'specially in Saskatchewan, but the high humidity here kills me!

I was sent an amusing article about scamming the scammers - three cheers for giving it back to those who pester us!

I'm enjoying teaching this new class - most of the student are in their third year or beyond, so they tend to be more organized and far more motivated than the freshmen that I've been teaching so far. The workload for the course is pretty heavy though - once you put together a syllabus, the prep work is done, which usually is the most stressful part of the course, but I'm finding that the amount of feedback the students need regarding their papers is also a lot more intensive than in the freshmen classes since they are each working on a different project. I'm not looking forward to reading their twenty page drafts - that will be an intensive couple of days when I'm not going to get any work of my own done!

They're all business students and the course is a project-based course in that they pick a topic, research it, and present a series of recommendations to the person they've identified who could effect the changes they are recommending. Most of the students write about a problem they observed during one of their co-op terms (since every undergrad at NEU does a co-op program) and address the project to their former supervisor, or, if they worked for the government or an NGO, to the appropriate member of government. Most of them have chosen good topics, but there are a few who are having problems at this point and I'm trying to help them get back on track.

It's really quite amusing - I have one student who is particularly disorganized and whose topic has changed a few times in the last couple of weeks. But he's also a bit of a problem - last day, he came 20 minutes late and then publicly complained that he didn't get anything out of the class! And I think it was the second or third class, he said he didn't think I would be able to understand what his paper was about because he was going to be discussing gaming and chaos theory in relation to securities. I'd been told that this frequently happens and was prepared for it, but before I could even respond to him, one of the other students at the other side of the room spoke up saying "She's a PhD student for goodness sake - she'll understand". God bless him! I continued on, reassuring the student that I am familiar with the world outside of literature, I did pass my calculus classes for my science degree, and what I was here for was to evaluate the calibre of his writing, which I'm more than capable of doing. But it was really great to have a defence come from another student as well - seems more valid that way.

I'm also enjoying the fact that I have a lot of international students in the class - probably a third of the class are exchange students and four of them are from Ireland, so I feel a certain kinship with them - and they don't laugh at my pronounciation of 'project'! (and the student who defended my intelligence was one of them) A couple of them are writing reports aimed at the Minister of Education or the Minister of Health, and are using Royal Commission reports and such to support their research. Now that all makes sense to me! I'm still fuzzy about parts of the American government bureaucracy - but I don't feel bad, since there seem to be a great number of Americans who are confused about it as well! It certainly makes for an interesting class.

I am developing a head cold after being exposed to coughing children for the last week. I've also discovered that it is the ephedra or ephedra-like substance that I don't like in cold medicine. I've never taken just ephedra before for a cold, so I thought I'd try it 'cause I thought it might be less nasty than a full blown cold medicine. And although my nose is clear, my ears feel stuffed with cotton, I feel like I'm dehydrated and my scalp tingles - I particularly hate that last feeling! It's creepy.

What a way to start my time alone with Dwayne!

Back home again - very nice to be in comfortable surroundings, but I'm also sorry that our vacation is over!

The girls are off to Saskatchewan and should be landing in about three hours - it's their first time flying, so they were a bit nervous, but the airline was pretty good about explaining everything to them, and having someone walk them through the entire trip was well worth the money. 'Specially for their first time.

Nova Scotia was nice - the weather was a pleasant mixture of rain and warmth and the countryside was beautiful! It was nice to see at least part of the Maritimes in a season other than winter. It was also nice to be in Canada for a while. It's not that I dislike being here, it's just nice to be somewhere where I know the rules, the expectations; I don't have to calculate temperature, distance or speed - it's what I've grown up with and I know exactly what's what. There really isn't much of a difference between the countries except for those little unconscious things - and I was surprised at how easily I got used to getting coins as change instead of just bills - though the first purchase I made caused me a bit of a jolt when I got the change back. Nice to have some color in my purchases!

We had another hassle coming over the border. It's beginning to get frustrating travelling between the countries on a visa - far easier to be a tourist, that's for sure. They've changed the visa tracking system, so we had the privilege of paying for our departure records all over again. I was a little disturbed today when they tried to take them away as the girls were leaving the country, since that we mean they would have to pay yet again when the come back home. It feels a bit punative - I have to pay every time I go home for a visit. Is that to discourage me from leaving? I thought the problem was that too many people are staying!

I'm not quite used to the idea of not having the kids around again - I suppose by the time I do get used to it, they'll be back!

Long ago Shea, Dwayne and I decided that children don't understand simple physics... you know, if you let go of something in mid-air it will fall to the earth, letting go of an object while spinning will cause it to fly off and hit anything in its way. gravity works, etc. My children are verifying that observation by having difficulty grasping the concept of 'everything' and 'nothing' as well... as in 'you need to pack everything' and 'nothing' should be left in this room'!

The last move was the most stressful one I have ever experienced and while I don't blame them - they were just being who they are - I think much of the stress that pushed me over the top was the behaviour of the kids. It will be interesting to see how this move might be different with them not around for the actual move date.

Sometimes I think I would be beautiful if it wasn't for my kids... wrinkle and grey hair-free... *sigh*

Happy Canada Day!

Unfortunately, I'm not in the right country to celebrate - but I intend on being there by tomorrow night - just in time to be out of the U.S. for the 4th of July. So I guess I'll miss both holidays... too bad.

Had a friend message me saying "I'm having blogger block" and my first impulse was to provide potential topics to blog about...one of which was the relative merits/pitfalls of blogging while drunk (the topic of another friend's blog recently). How exactly does mood (in all its manifestations) affect the construction of a blog?

On second thought, I started wondering what the difference between writer's block and blogger's block might be - after all, they are different kinds of writing, aren't they? Shouldn't the kind of 'blocks' for each be of a different nature? After all, you don't hear about journalists suffering from writer's block as often as fiction writers, do you? A journalist is supposed to be writing about stuff that's going on in the world, and I have the sense that more frequently, the problem has to do with the way in which you want to construct the article less so than what material you will cover. At least, when I did the little bit of journalistic writing that I did for SPARK at U of C, I had a clear idea of my topic and what I wanted to say, it was the way I wanted to construct the article (and that evil word limit!) that was the biggest problem. When you're writing fiction, it seems that the block more frequently refers to a lack of ideas.

Though I understand her desire to find something to blog about if she hasn't blogged in a while - I know there are days when I think I should write something, but don't know what to write.

Stone Reader - good movie. Unfortunately it's only playing in a few venues, and I can't find any listing for the ones outside the U.S. though I do know it was screened in Perth, so it's out there. A docudrama about reading... well, mostly about one guy's obsession with one book and his search for what happened to its author after a well-reviewed but poorly circulated novel. If you love books, you will feel a kinship with the director/editor of the movie as he embarks on a quest that asks not only why this book is the only one produced by its author, but what is the relationship between authors and books, especially when they only write one. I certainly am curious now about the book he is obsessed with - The Stones of Summer - B&N are re-releasing it in September... though I don't know that I'll be curious enough to read all 552 pages of it!

And my first reason for saying I might not read the whole thing? I don't have enough time. But I think that might not be entirely accurate.

The one thought that kept recurring as I was watching the movie was that I was jealous of these men who seemed to have all the time in the world to read. I used to read all the time too - I read voraciously when I was younger. But when I started having kids, reading seemed to be something that there just wasn't any time for during the day, and then at night, no matter how interesting the book, the act of sitting still signalled my body that it was time to go to sleep - if I wasn't running after a child, my body assumed that the child was not conscious and it should follow the golden rule of 'sleep when the baby sleeps'. And so I did. This is why I read very little after the mid-eighties.

And so my first thought was, 'oh sure, that's fine for you guys - you aren't the ones running around after children all day'... and the fact that Moskowitz (the director) says at one point that autumn is his busiest season when he does nothing but work, and his wife and children understand, and reading is the only thing that keeps him sane made me think that reading is a luxury only available to the male, not the reproducing female. But then I realized that there is nothing (but lots of work) that would stop me from engaging in reading voraciously again - I have just gotten out of the habit... and developed a sense that reading for pleasure is a guilty pleasure when there are others around who might need my attention. So if I want to read more, then I just need to do it - if I could start with a goal of say four or five pleasure books a year: one or two that are in my extensive collection of books bought and never read, the one that wins the Booker, the one that wins the Governor General's award, and maybe, big maybe, the one that wins the Orange...but that last one would be only if I think the book is worth it 'cause I don't necessarily agree with the need for a separate award.

Since it's the end of June, should I count that as a resolution for 2003, or 2004?

It's amazing the capacity of our memory for trivial detail - particularly when that detail is associated with music. We spent a good part of yesterday sorting through old cassettes, most of which originated in the 80s. Bands like Nirvana, Depeche Mode, Men without Hats, Rick Springfield, Honeymoon Suite, Led Zeppelin all mixed together and it was amazing that you could play a tape of a song you haven't heard in 10 or 15 years, and still remember all the lyrics. We even found a copy of Bob & Doug McKenzie's "Take Off" on one of the compilation albums!

Also brought back lots of other (particularly) 80s memories. You know, I'm not even old enough yet to start a sentence with "In my lifetime...", but, in my lifetime - as short as it has been - I remember my parents first buying a microwave (one of those ones that was the size of a small dishwasher!), VCR, and computer, which was a Commodore 64 of course. My father purchased it when I was in grade 10 I think and I remember him coming home from buying it (at Zellers of all places if I remember correctly) and saying "I paid $200 for this computer, so you'd better use it!" And I of course felt quite intimidated at the time since I had no idea how I would fulfill that imperative since I had no idea what to do with the thing! But man! What a feeling of accomplishment when I learnt Basic and wrote my first simple program. Sorting through our cassettes reminded me of my first computers class in high school since we actually stored our data on cassette - we didn't have floppy drives till my second year. Computers seemed a lot simpler then, even if I did struggle to avoid looping in the program I tried to write for my final project.

But then I had kids and I really didn't come back to computers until I went back to school, and by then, the things they could do were mind boggling and still confuse me at many turns... (as anyone in my address book discovered this week - I'm still pretty embarassed about being caught on that one)

I also remember buying my first CD player - first anniversary present to ourselves (first marriage), and first cell phone - yeah, one of those ones that was the size of a small dog! Let alone laptops and the internet....both of which I don't think I could imagine living without...anymore than I could imagine life without a TV or a microwave.

But the pace of change in just the last thirty years is nothing compared to what I'm sure my children will see in the same amount of time.

I wonder what the ever accelerating pace of change will do to us... some people just don't respond well to change... and even those who handle it better than others still like things to remain stable for a time. There are a few things that you'd like to be able to count on in your life. Other than of course death and taxes. Will we adapt to such changes, or will it continue to alienate people from each other? Will things become more gray, or will we revert into some kind of dystopian image of the future in which white becomes whiter and black blacker and there is no middle ground? Maybe I've just read too many apocalyptic books.

9 am and its 85/29 outside already! Our second floor apartment just traps all the heat that rises up to it - it was actually nice around 1 am, but other than that...

But I can handle it 'cause I just keep thinking about the central air in our new place! Yes, we found a new place to live - yeah! It's officially a two bedroom townhouse, but there's a finished basement that we'll be using as a third bedroom. It's set up a bit like the two bedrooms in Varsity Courts, though a bit smaller. The cool parts are the georgous hardwood floors, mouldings, dishwasher, central air and the fact that there's a ground level access that a piano will be easy to get through. The condo includes access to an outdoor pool during the summer as well - the kids will really like that one! We still don't have a huge amount of space, but we can spread out a bit more in this place. Hopefully keep out of each other's hair better that way!

Finished a good book - "The Bone People" by Keri Hulme. It won the Booker award in 1985 - yeah, I'm almost two decades behind - but I wouldn't have likely enjoyed this book in '85 - I was reading Orwell, Lewis, re-reading Tolkien, and lots of sf - Asimov's Foundation books, Herbert's Dune books, oh, and a series by Stephen R. Donaldson called "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever"...though the last one isn't sf (which Donaldson is best known for) but a fantasy about a man with leprosy who travels to another world to fight the evil Lord Foul. It wasn't a particularly brilliant series, though the leprosy angle was interesting - it was recommended to me by a customer at the coffee shop I worked at - I don't know that I'd be as excited about it today if I reread the series.

But back to The Bone People - it is not only a well constructed tale, that incorporates Maori phrasing into the text (there's a glossary at the back) and thus becoming an interesting intersection of the postcolonial, but it also is an engaging story - I found myself caught up in the lives of the characters. In a book about abuse, I found it refreshing that the book avoids black and white categorizations, mostly through the characters' introspective passages, but also through some scenes that can only be described as magical realist. The narrative shifts from third to first person narration as well as from character to character. The character shifts can be disconcerting since it is occasionally difficult to tell at first glance who's narrating, but it's always possible to identify the speaker within a couple of paragraphs, unlike, say a book like "All the Pretty Horses" where you could be confused for pages at a time about who was speaking. In that case, the confusion was compounded by the fact that all his characters sounded the same.

The Bone People - good book if you're looking for an interesting summer read that makes you think.

Part of a conversation with a friend: ... she's a teeneager. I'd rather nail jello to a tree then argue with a teenager. I'd actually even prefer to reason for my life with a terrorist than rationalize with a teenager.

I loved the metaphor! feels very right...can you visualize the tree and the jello?