In honour of the fact that several of my friends have recently had babies, I've realized I should take more time to appreciate my life. So yesterday I slept in until 10, spent most of the day cuddling cats and reading or knitting while watching movies, had cookies for lunch, enjoyed an evening with my Peter where we did nothing in particular, and stayed up late reading a good book.
Being in my 30s now means I have to revisit my no-kids stance every now and then to make sure I didn't just make a hasty decision when I was 12. Fortunately for me, the older I get, the more I'm comforted by the thought that the no-kids option is right for me*. I recognize that I'm the minority on that one, and so I don't talk about it much - people get really touchy when you make a decision to go against the social norm, they take it as a judgement on their life choice even though it's not. Other people choose kids and are clearly very happy with that life, I choose no kids and so far that's leading to happiness in my life so everyone wins - yay! (I get this with marriage too - it's a minefield when people ask why Peter and I aren't married, because my reasons can be taken as judgements no matter what I say.)
Peter and I are off to spend the day together - visiting MakerFaire the the Latin festival (salsa dancing!). Hope everyone else is enjoying the start of summer too!
*a footnote to say this doesn't mean I dislike kids or that I don't want any in my life - I just don't want to take on being a full time parent. But friends' kids, nieces/nephews, etc - bring them on.
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Sunday, June 26, 2011
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Sunday, June 19, 2011
New
Starting in July I'll be transitioning to a new role at the City - back over in Sustainability. I had such a grand time there last year when they borrowed me and an opportunity to go back came up so I applied and got the job! I feel bad about leaving my team (the timing is bad) and not seeing our project through (I really like to finish things), but they're wonderful people so they're excited for me even though it means headaches for them at a busy time.
My new job is a totally new position, so it'll take some time to really get it all sussed out but it should be very much about making good things happen, and helping other departments at the city reach their sustainability targets. I really loved working with people from all over the city, so I'm very much looking forward to delving into my new role.
I don't write about work much on here - and will continue to keep it that way - so if you want more than vague details about what I will soon be doing for a living, just shoot me an email. But in a nutshell: yay! Should be an interesting summer!| Labels: life | 0 comments | | |
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Yesterday was my favorite event of the year - Swap-o-rama-rama!
This is my fourth year helping out, this time as the volunteer coordinator. I'm happy to use my time to help, I think this event is fantastic.
It's part giant clothing swap and part crafty/diy party. You bring your unwanted clothes, pay a small admission fee, and you get to hunt through the piles and take as much as you want. Then there are sewing stations and screen printing stations where you can experiment with refashioning your new finds to make them better. People are a lot more open to experimenting on clothes they just found and didn't have to pay for, so there's usually some fun stuff going on in the crafting rooms.
Spool of Thread, Vancouver's sewing lounge, was running the sewing room, and they were getting people who had never sewn before to work some magic on their new clothing finds.
It's really fantastic to see people willing to give something new a try.
I got lucky with a crew of fabulous volunteers who signed up to help and were willing to do whatever needed to be done. Great volunteers make everything super easy for me.
The event went really well. I was busy, but still managed to find some great new clothes, as always. I hope everyone else refreshed their wardrobes too. :)
And, at the end, all the leftover clothes get donated to charity so it's a win-win-win situation.
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Thursday, June 16, 2011
Poor Vancouver - we all woke up this morning pretty heartbroken, and not because of the hockey game, but because a small group of terrible people broke our city and make us look awful in the eyes of the world.
This girl's blog sums up how I feel about the whole thing.| 0 comments | | |
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Monday, June 06, 2011
I have a question for the parents out there.I'm wondering how often your friends should bug you to do stuff? I struggle to find a happy balance between not wanting to bother people who are obviously very busy, but also wanting to see them (and not exclude them from the fun).As an example, I've got one set of friends who, after their 2nd kid came, dropped off the face of the planet. It's going on a year and a half since I've seen them (we live in the same city). I've sent repeated happy 'how are you? let's hang out' emails letting them know we'd love to see them and will do whatever is easiest for them (go to their place for a visit, go out, meet in a park with the kids, take the kids for ice cream) and still I get nothin'.Generally speaking, when people give me the cold shoulder, I back off and figure they just don't want to hang out with me. I don't want to give up on my friends who become parents because I figure the cold shoulder is probably unintentional... but seriously, after a year and a half, what am I supposed to think? If in that amount of time they can't make an effort to find a way to meet for coffee then I have to conclude that my friendship isn't terribly valuable, right?I have some friends who are fantastic and after having kids make sure to come out to the gatherings/girls nights out/whatever and I really appreciate how hard that is for them - but they say they really value the time away from the kids too, so everyone wins, yay! But other folks, after having kids, literally disappear, never to be seen again. Which makes me sad. So what's the best way to reach out to parents?Any advice on how persistent to be is welcome. I'm very capable of being persistent and emailing repeatedly, even calling, but I really hate to bother people who are perhaps trying to politely tell me to buzz off by not replying.| 4 comments | | |
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Sunday, June 05, 2011
I don't know if you heard, but the Canucks won Game 2 of the Stanley Cup last night. You might have heard the City of Vancouver screaming and partying ? Seriously, the City celebrated in a major way - thousands of people in the streets, high fiving and being very happy. (They won it with a goal 11 seconds into overtime.)
It makes one wonder what'll happen if Vancouver wins the Stanley Cup - if winning game 2 causes such joy! I'm looking forward to finding out! I do love it when the Canucks score a goal - we actually mute our tv and listen to the city scream and cheer. It's hilarious and awesome.
From a planning perspective - it's interesting to think about how events like these really show where the heart of a city is. Where do the people gather? What streets do you close down? Where do you set up the large outdoor screens for people to watch? Do you have public space appropriate for celebrations? Fortunately for us, the Olympics made Vancouver face all these questions and figure all this stuff out. I think the Olympics also taught us how to have street parties. And we're all really good at giving strangers high fives when prompted. So, I think we're ready for the Canucks to win the cup.
One photo showing a small portion of the crowd out on Granville St after the Game 2 win: http://www.flickr.com/photos/59173294@N08/5798471753/in/photostream (photo by Vancouver Police Department - who are doing a great job letting people have fun and keeping things safe.)| 0 comments | | |
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