That's All She Writ

Just in case anyone is (God forbid) relying on me for news, it's official: the 38th Parliament is kaput. The writ was dropped this morning, just as I arrived at my public affairs tutorial to do a presentation on the power of the PM and how Martin should/may organize his bureaucracy. Irony! In an historic first, I actually agree with Klein: I'm thinking another Liberal minority. However, everyone will have plenty of time to trip over themselves, so really the winner will simply be whichever party can shove its respective demons the furthest under the rug. The CPC seems serially incapable of breaking through in Ontario and their polling numbers in Quebec are absolutely pitiful. This morning the CBC had the Conservatives pegged at 7% in Quebec, behind the NDP's 8%.

To relive the good times, here is a little humour I found through the Calgary Grit. "And everybody's all, "Dude, that sucks! Halifax is like so far away."

To continue the gadfly theme of this post, Katherine and I think it's hilarious that Gilles Duceppe isn't even bothering to go to Quebec this morning. Nay, he is in Ottawa, as if to say, "yeah, Ah'm at 50% in the only province that matters to me. You English-type MP persons can race out like heads-cut-off chickens, ben oui. Ah will sit 'ere with the C-PAC and watch the fun qui se deroule. Pork rinds, Marcel?"

Gleekend

Gleekend, n.: a weekend of glee.

A few hours ago I returned from a very good two days at the McGill Outdoors Club. Six of us left Friday, in one SUV (natch!) because one of two drivers had backed out at the absolute last minute. That guy's on notice with me, needless to say. Anyway, we arrived about 7:00 and had a mellow evening of chit-chat.

The highlights of Saturday included:

1. Awaking Saturday morning we awoke to find an exciting cast of characters had arrived from all corners of the globe. There were representatives of Australia, England, France, Germany, New Zealand, and Wales present. Actually, I think I was the only Canadian girl in the cabin (unless I mistook some of the francophones' accents), as Anna, the only other girl in our little delegation, is on exchange from England herself.

2. Going snow-skateboarding. This is a new and exciting sport where the participants use skateboards without wheels as tiny, misshapen snowboards. McGill owns a section of the hills across from the house, so we traipsed around the trails and destroyed the skateboard decks on the lack of snow.

3. Losing all momentum after lunch. Basically, we had grilled cheese and then gave up. Unless "playing cards" counts as an outdoor activity, then we did no outdoor activity in the afternoon.

4. Getting to know the members of the G8 summit going on in the cabin. Welsh Tom and I talked about Welsh separatism (I didn't even know it existed, likely because they don't blow things up at all often). He also tried to teach me some Welsh, which sounds cool even if I can't remember any of it. This morning Pete From Leeds played Four Strong Winds on the guitar with the missing string as Kiwi Chantelle declined to be corralled into cooking (pleas of "but you're all descended from Captain Cook! You should cook!" fell on deaf antipodean ears). The French girls mostly talked among themselves, but a few of them mixed.

5. Everyone getting beaten at Risk by German Sebastian, prompting French Mathieu to comment, "third time lucky!" This is one thing I love about university: even with a big group of people and a festive atmosphere, it is always acceptable to start a board game.

7. Not having anyone try to steal my food, which turned out to be better than the sketchy "meat sauce" someone procured for the pasta. Go, veggie burgers! And go, national stereotpyes, too! One of the English kids let out what could reasonably be called a shout of triumph when I produced teabags. "Oh, tea! Lovely!"

So yes. All in all, quite a good weekend. Yes, Jacob, you were right. It was fun.

Memo to Potential Young Conservatives

When Peter MacKay approaches you and asks you to take a picture with him at a party fundraiser, it is pretty cool. Despite this, it mostly signifies the way that the Conservative Party has a dearth of university-age females, so they are going to splash this photo of you all over the website so as to signal that they are so a Party of the Yoof. "Look, you guys!" they will say proudly to themselves, "we had a party and girls came!"

Either that or he has a crush on you. But probably more the posturing.

Oh, Lord, K-dawg is now calling everyone she knows to speak of this encounter.

Last night we saw Stephen Lewis. It was amazing, though somewhat depressing. This is absolutely the wrong way to look at all of his work and his amazing strength, but doesn't it make you feel lazy? Doesn't it make you feel morally inferior? For God's sake, there are 800 people (or children, don't remember) dying every day of AIDS and what have I done today? What am I going to do tomorrow? Nothing much. But I am going to send an e-mail to the Ottawa South NDP candidate, whose platform includes the 0.7% GNP goal for foreign aid, thus striking a blow at all that is evil and encouraging a culture of SHARING AND NICENESS like they told us in kindergarten, because those are good things on which to found a society. Unlike, for instance, that finger in the dike, mine-is-mine ideology called what? Ah, yes. Conservatism.

And scene.

Life Among the Conservatives

To my recurrent dismay, Katherine and Emily seem to be sticking to their cognitive-dissonance Conservative connection. This Wednesday they are volunteering at a Conservative fundraiser silent auction. Now, I don't think the Conservatives are the devil, but I will not raise dough for them just because their deputy leader is (a) the least funny-looking of the MPs, (b) an excellent speaker, and (c) a waistcoat wearer. That last is not a euphemism for anything, he just wears one. Anyway: Pla! to that. I will have to sit here and continue to fume in leftist disenfranchisement and disenchantment. Nate, however, is pleased as punch.

I am pleased as punch that Mum (or Mom, as she would prefer) is here. Last night we went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, eeeee! It was really quite good. The entire Weasley family is just perfect. The directions they gave to Krum consisted of, I believe, "Just be terrifying and Bulgarian." Which works well, for Krum. Though he was too Soviet-gymnast beefy; Krum is supposed to be sort of duck-footed and unnotable except for his Mad Quidditch Skillz(tm). But whatever. It was enjoyable, and Mum and I went out to Oh So Good afterwards for dessert. We split the delightful banana chocolate cake and talked about politics and boys (that is, after all, what we have mothers for!). Today we made mahumbah, which was well received, and went for a drive and a walk in the Gatineau Hills. After that she very kindly treated me, Katherine, Emily, and Nate to dinner at the Greek place. Hot Neighbour and Hot Waiter have been considerate enough to make appearances today, so Mum knows with whom we are most likely to run off to Aruba. Guilt-Trip Waiter appeared as well, reviving his feud with Emily over her failure to recognize him in the elevator in our building a few days ago. In fairness to Guilt-Trip Waiter, Emily did recognize Hot Waiter, and Guilt-Trip Waiter's guilt trip was due partially to heartbrokenness at the discovery of his sidekick status. In the restaurant we had a rousing-yet-civil argument about (what else?) Dubya. We did get the Can-con in, but the characters on the American stage are so much more grotesque that they are great fun to discuss in tones of horror. Somber head-shaking is optional, but recommended for gravitas.

In addition to all these good things, my poli sci essay does not suck; it is due Tuesday and I have only one page left to write. All in all, quite a satisfactory weekend. I have been wined and dined, gotten a bit of work done, and seen two rather good movies (Walk the Line was the other one -- hooray for doped-up Johnny Cash!). Mum should come every weekend!

Mi Hogar, Mi Otro Hogar

Mum's coming on Saturday! Hooray-ray-ray! I am very excited to see her. We will have many funs.

Until then, I have rather a lot of work to do, so I will catch you cats later. Once more: Mum's coming! Yay!

???

Huuuuh? Well, that is a development. Although I am a little confused as to why this is happening now, exactly. But well done, oppositions: you guys pretty much have them over a barrel now. If Martin says "no, no February election" then you can just turn around and say, "oh-ho! How about an election right this very second? How do you like them apples?" So... well done, folks. After only a year and a half, you've woken up and realized that you can actually work together long enough to depose the Liberals. At the moment, I find this to be groovy, particularly since waiting for a few months after the final Gomery report's release would give the electorate and their tiny, tiny brains time to get distracted again. And this would not be truly in the public interest.

Political mastermind, over and out!

Outdoors Glee!

I have just returned from my God the most wonderful 9km trail run. It is a beautiful day for running -- overcast, cool but not cold -- and the leaves are just falling from the trees in the Gatineau. The Running Club put it together (not to be confused with the cross-country running club of which I am sort-of veep). They all seem like really nice people. It was great meeting them, I'm definitely going out to more of their events in future. And, just like the Thursday run, I was the only girl in the front pack. Well done, me. But it was just such a great fall day that you couldn't help but be exuberant! (!!!)

Am going to go cure this endorphin rush by making a shopping list. Huzzah! We're out of milk!

Oh, Saturday

Am listening to Norwegian death metal on the BBC. Most enjoyable! It seems to be some people called Cadaver singing (barking) something called Petrifyed Faces. I am also working on my public affairs paper. My thesis for this particular paper is this: I hate you, Leo Panitch. As I was saying earlier to Emily, even I don't like this article and I want to like Marxist methods of analysis! Feh. It is all full of academic hairsplitting; there seems to be a lot more of that in our readings this year. It was very disconcerting at first but I seem to be getting used to it. Anyway, this article is busily telling me things I already know but putting them in devilishly convoluted terms and making pointless distinctions between virtually identical concepts.

Last night I went out with my friend Steph and various people she knows from choir and other things. We participated in a singalong Sound of Music show, bringing my tally of singalong movie showings to two for this year. V. good. We had great fun hissing at the Baroness, booing the Nazis, and interjecting our own commentary (e.g.: Captain von Trapp: "You aren't going to have another governess, you're going to have a mother." Audience member: [blood-curdling scream]). There were some very adorable kids there, dressed up as girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, drops of golden sun, and von Trapp children.

I am all on my onesie at the moment; Katherine has gone back to the T-dot for the weekend to participate in Olde Familie Traditions, i.e. the Royal Winter's Fair. She tells me that her brother's girlfriend has had him get a very emo kind of haircut. This is humourous on so many levels.

Back to Dr. Panitch. Fist-shaky!

Happy Birthday to Nate!

The birthday boy. Holy Bat Cake!

Remember, Remember, It's Really November

No snow? What's the deal? Now that I have gone and said that there's no snow, there will probably be great buckets of it within the next, oh, ten minutes. But the fact remains: November 9 and no white stuff this morning.

Monday night we hosted a surprise birthday party for Nathanael, after some very close calls. I mean, Monday morning I opened the apartment door wide enough that he could see the decorations. And that afternoon, Katherine and Emily had to do some fancy flinging to get pop and chips around the corner where he wouldn't see them (you weren't supposed to be home, Nate!). We were certain he would know, and I think Emily thought he was toying with her just before the surprise. He actually arrived home from work and said how disappointed he was that she hadn't planned anything for his birthday! She had to keep a straight face long enough to get him down the hall into our apartment where various music student friends of his (and Notl and her boyfriend James) were waiting. We lurked in the entryway for a good five minutes before she pried Nathanael away from their place. And then we all yelled "SURPRISE!", like you do, and did cake and presents and watched a campy Batman movie ("What weighs six ounces, sits in a tree, and is very dangerous?" "A sparrow with a machine gun!"). It was all very nice. And our presents went down well. Katherine, Emily and I got him a "Real Men Vote Convservative" t-shirt and a Batman lunchbox. Emily got him an 8X10 of Sean Connery and... something else, don't remember! I will say that it was very awkward going into this extremely groovy t-shirt place and asking for that on a shirt. This girl with piercings and interestingly layered hair looked a bit perturbed at our choice of lettering.

Monday night I also had my political science research methods midterm. The only disappointing part was that they misspelled "causal" as "casual". I was muy perturbed by the copy-editing failure. School continues as usual. I've taught myself some Excel stuff again. It seems so much easier than it did in junior high! At Heights they made us input data into the chart wizard without explaining why a given set should go in a given place, so if you forgot the order in which to do things you really couldn't reason through it. But it turns out that if you just experiment and use the "help" function, it's really not so difficult.

Coffee's ready! I must away. Choir practice in an hour and a half, and a geography assignment to finish before that! La la, how the life goes on.

Enter Rooms With Great Joyous Shouts

As Dame Edna might say, "hello, my possums!" It is a stormy Sunday here in Ottawa. Just as Katherine and I stepped off the bus with our groceries, Mother Nature decided that now would be a perfect time to rain like crazy so that our stroll to the building became a rain-pelted dash. Thanks, MoNa (I can call her that. MoNa and I are tight).

A few days ago I was looking through Steph Wittenberg's blog, seeing all the old photos. Much to my surprise, I realized that losing them doesn't hurt any more. It still feels sad, but I'm not sad for myself anymore. It is funny how we cicatrice (I have wanted to use that word since I saw it in The Name of the Rose). I guess all I mean to say is that remembering doesn't feel bitter to me anymore. I no longer feel the desperation of loss.

I'm quite enjoying The Name of the Rose, by the way. It's quite an amazing book, actually. The dialogue and narration are just beautifully in period and all the learned-monks stuff is very good. It's hard to think what possible bearing Aristotle could have on a murder investigation, but Eco makes it work! Another one I want to read is that Joan Didion memoir, The Year of Thinking Magically or whatever it is called. Must add that to my "to read" list!

It's Nate's birthday tomorrow. He's turning 23, the old man! He and Emily are in Hamilton right now, having a family weekend. We got him the most amazing present the world has ever known, but I can't say what it is until it has been presented.

What a great storm! Seeing it out the window, it's really quite impressive.

So Here's the Thing...

Today's Cliff's Notes are that my poli sci midterm was okay, that co-op classes are finally done (THANK THE LORD) and that I am disturbed by Canadian politics.

This was sort of the perfect day for a political panel discussion featuring someone from each party. All together now: Gomery! It was so interesting, because the Liberal message was pretty much "well, wait and see, we'll see how the finished investigation goes, a few bad apples, etc." The Conservatives said, "accountability! Accountability now!" and the NDP said, "world peace and child care!" It was odd.

There was an odd feeling in the crowd. Even in this ultimate government town, nobody's happy with the Liberals on this day of days. The Liberal guy seemed really nice and was all about the Yoof, so there was love on that point. But there were also MacKay groupies (Katherine and Emily left as groupies. Although I was embarrassed for them, I agree MacKay is a very engaging and concise speaker) and some hardcore NDP folks. Kind of a nice mix, a bit of a cross-section.

So, in short, I am completely disillusioned. The Conservatives are sort of awesome-looking compared to Liberal obfuscation on Adscam, but in terms of real policy matters are less excellent. (MacKay actually suggested a more diplomatic approach on softwood lumber. Uh, no, we tried that, it kind of left us billions of dollars in the hole. Time for hardball, my friends.) I would love to love the NDP, but they are just such complete flakes that it is difficult for me to do so. Katherine and Emily are semi-converted. A very strange day. I only hope that the effects of Blue Peter (ha ha) and his logical, measured mode of speech will wear off.

I must say, though, Peter MacKay did kind of rock the house. Someone asked the panel of MPs a "fun question": "If you had to be any MP of the opposite sex, which one would you choose?" Navdeep Bains said McLellan, and Judy Ukrainian Last Name of the NDP said Broadbent, but MacKay just murmured, "well, I know who I wouldn't be!" It absolutely brought the house down.