All Gramaduated Now

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for taking graduation photos outside the University of Toronto...

The year has finally come to a close and we enjoyed a morning of graduation ceremonies inside Convocation Hall.

The funniest moment was at the end of the ceremony, when all the graduates performed the wave from their seats. The university dignitaries joined in on the third go-round as the room exploded in cheers!

Lunch with the family at the 3 Brewers was delicious, if a little disappointing in the beer selection. The day had been so tiring that we plodded home and had a nap!

Wonderful day though. :)

A Bongo Christmas!

School is out, holidays are in! Bring on the snow and figgy pudding!

Just one more week until the big 2-5 and this year is shaping up to be a little different than most others: we're playing the my-house/your-house dance routine this year. And then it's off to the East Coast for some fun in the... snowstorm.

I like Christmas, it's my favourite holiday. People come home from afar, you don't have to go to school or work (sans doctors and journalists, that is) because it's all closed up, and you can cosy up in your big warm blanket and fall asleep to happy Christmas Carols. It's all about presence.

Plus you get presents. Yaaaay! Presents!!

Back to Back

Back to work and drudgery. Back to routine and thoughts of strangling incompetent supervisors. Just not a fan right now, though I have a tan so I can't complain too much, once this cold kicks it.

Some things are just more important than complaining about a job being sucky (as in sucking the life out of you), I do realize that. Surgery, for example, is a biggie. So is having to relearn your hand motor skills.

These are sufficient to distract me back to work. I wish these surgery-goers well.

Plastic Charms

Oddly enough, I've recently become engaged.

Such a strange and new world, the realm of potential bridezilla. Cycling through modes of glee, frustration, anger, ponderment and wonderment and all throughout just the first week of elation.

Sigh. Already helpful suggestions have started trickling in. Am I to become a cynical bride-to-be? Will I be labelled as a "tried"-to-be?
(groan)

All this and more after receiving a silly green plastic ring from our Christmas cracker last year -- it was certainly charming, if not engaging... I liked the part where he had to convince me he was being serious. :) I also liked the part where he chose me. That was c-o-o-l.

Duck Daze of Summer

Canada Day was beautiful this year: sunny, warm, breezy, clear and bright.

My family went to Edward's Gardens for the afternoon. Sandwich-eating and soccer-playing with the two little ones passed away the better part of our excursion.

We walked down the hill to watch the ducks and ducklings in the pond, and the waterwheel, and have fun romping around with piggy-backs. And then...

And then.

A clear voice rang out across the pond: "You killed it! You killed that duck! You killed it!"

I look over at an embarrassed young boy walking away from the scene of the accident with his brother. He had thrown a big rock into the pond, aiming for the ducks, and the rock had hit the duck and broken its neck. The duck was still alive, swimming sideways, floundering... drowning. It's mother was nearby, watching. The whole duck family swam over in a group and could only watch as we did to see the poor duckling try to right itself.

Only a few minutes more passed before the duckling stopped trying.

As far as we know, the boy was not punished. He had a talking to by his mother and another woman who saw the whole thing too, but nothing else.

At the risk of sounding cliche... Some kids are getting away with murder these days.

Ilana Talk

Happy New Year, 2008! I'm hoping this year will provide a little more stability than last in terms of job stuff and life stuff, but hey, something good always comes from something bad, right? So to start things off again for this year, here's a little exchange I overheard at one of our recent family gatherings...

My almost-2-yr-old niece was "explaining" (in her 2-3 word sentence structure) what a few different animals sound like to her grandparents and parents:

"Ilana, what sound does a dog make?"
"Wuhh wuhh."
"Ilana, what sound does a monkey make?"
"Ooo Ooo."
"Ilana, what sound does Ilana make?"
<pause> "... Ilana talk?"

And then later that evening,
"Ilana, what sound does a duck make?"
"Wak wak."
"Ilana, what sound does a cow make?"
"Mooooooo."
"Ilana, what sound does Daddy make?"
<no pause, big grin> "Ooo Ooo!"

Re-tiring

It must be an odd feeling to be facing your last day of work... ever.

I mean, you're done, that's it, your part is over. You've worked your whole life to retire one day and all you have to do is walk out of that door and walk away from the work-life you've know for the past... 40 or so years.

It can't be that easy... Suddenly there is no definitive length of time to measure this new segment of your life -- no date to mark on your calendar, no party to mark your next achievement. You're on your own.

You can do pretty much whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want.

Is that too much freedom?? Sounds kinda tiring to me, to be honest.

To Hell With Arguing

Because heart Attacks will always be quicker than cancerous Cells...

Because mortal Words cannot hurt as much as immature Thoughts...

Because being wonderful means Following others' wishes despite not believing in them Yourself...

... because what's the point of losing what you can't have anyway?

Birthday Grrrl

Happy Birthday to meee... Yay Friday. Yaaaay weekend!

That's all. :)

Febrewary First

I earned me a Crown today at RateBeer.com for entering a hundred ratings.

This is quite a nice package for me for February, considering it's just in time for my birthday and (more importantly) my handle name there on the site is an old reference to a joke between my grandparents, who happen to be celebrating their 62nd wedding anniversary today...

... Camel asks, "Cuppa tea, Mabel?"

Po: Working Care = Caring Work?

'Po' is a word that Edward de Bono (the originator of 'lateral thinking') came up with more than 25 years ago. Po is to be used as a provocation word -- a word to provocate a thinking process -- but not necessarily create judgement.

For example...

Po: Employers provide day care facilities for their employees.

Read this as "Wouldn't it be great if..." & "What would happen if..." but all rolled into one thought.

The companies would save on time (and money) since less people would take sick leave or absences for emergencies or appointments. The money from contributing employees could be redistributed to fund the full-time staff looking after the children, thus reducing running costs. The reputation of the company would be fantastic in terms of benefits and generating the feeling that they're really taking care of their own. And -- perhaps most importantly -- it would provide a means for the typical working-parent(s)-with-child family to interact during the day, on a daily basis.

The employees would obviously save a lot of time and money usually spent getting to and from day care (since they're going to work anyway), or leaving early picking the children up, and organizing after-work activities would fit better in their schedules. They'd worry less, since they'd be closer in case of an emergency, and therefore have less on their minds -- which potentially increases productivity. They'd have a more flexible schedule to work with, again decreasing stress and increasing productivity. Interestingly, they could have lunch with the children, which not only gives the day care workers a bit of a break but more importantly they get to spend more time with their children...

The positives in this situation are too numerous to list.

Why hasn't this idea caught on more??