Saturday, February 27, 2010

What is your nationality?


I was asked the other day by someone what was my nationality. This is an excerpt from our conversation:

The person: "What is your nationality?"

Me: "Canadian."

The person: "But you have an accent."

Me: "So what?"

The end.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

If you ever get the traffic ticket


And you want to fight it in the court. And when you get the court date, you realize that there is no way Hose that you can attend the trial, and you decide to go to postpone the court date here is what happens, and it is not as easy as it sounds, be prepared to spend few hours working on this one:


1. You go to 137 Edward Street where you wait in line to get the number so that you can file the motion to postpone the trial ( the affidavit that you cannot be present at the trial for whatever your reason is ).


2. You wait for about 1 hour before Customer Service rep calls your number


3. You have a lengthy conversation with the rep, who tells you that you have to be present in court to file your motion to postpone the trial, and you explain to the rep that there is no way Hose that you can be in the court on any given day before some time in May, and the rep goes to his supervisor, and comes back after 15 minutes (you have no idea where he went, while your parking is about to expire). Finally he tells you that it is alright, postpones that date, but you are not finished yet.


4. You have to go to the court where your trial was set, to the prosecutor's office and get it stamped ( it is unclear why because they just stamp the paper that you have to bring back to 137 Edward )


5. After you have your paper stamped you go back to 137 Edward and file your papers ( they call it you "serve" papers )


Anyway, I just wanted to share this with you.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

I in the mirror


This morning I looked at myself in the mirror. Like I do every morning, I guess. But this morning, I took a closer look, while holding my head with hands, "ironing" some of the deep wrinkles and looking straight in my eyes. Did I see a stranger for a moment? Less than a moment, for a split second. Who is that woman looking at me? What did I discover looking at her? How can I know her better, and accept her for who she is? This was just the beginning, I know now. On the road of letting things go, giving up attempts to control things that cannot be controlled by her ( by me ? ), accepting of reality ( car that is too old - born in 1993, not having enough money to buy two airfares to Europe, at age of 48 not having a stable career, not having any money saved for retirement...and so on - reality is pounding in my head like too loud drum).

Today is sunny day. It is cold, but it is sunny. It is very bright, very revealing. It would be nice day to go to the beach if it was summer. The summer was way too short. I remember the last day of summer, not by calendar, but by me, when I was sunbathing on my very own balcony. It was one day in September. I remember, I was thinking - this must be the last day of summer for me, I was trying to talk to the sun to go down a little bit slower, I was just making myself comfortable, my book was there ( something about Michael Jackson ), I applied sun tanning oil, my hands were oily, I wiped them on the towel, but sun did not listen to me. There is this big tree that was my enemy, because in less than half an hour the sun will reach it's branches. I love that tree for it leaves, but they are in my way now. The sun will soon be behind them leaving me to long for it's heat, it's caress, it's promise of beautiful sounds and smells of the beach ( even on my balcony, weird, isn't it?).

Anyway, worth mentioning is that I typed few times "son" instead "sun". My son gave me an assignment to read about Great Depression in his history book. He says: "You read first, so that you can help me do my assignment." That meant he was good at planning, and delegating work, and understanding the process. I think: he could become a manager right away. I cannot do that, I like to do work myself, I do not like to delegate, and I am not at ease when I give some work to be done for me by other people. I have no confidence that other people will do a good job, and that is not the trait of a leader. I am no leader, but my son is. He is not aware of that though, he just wants to make his life easier. Me to, that's why I do everything by myself. I cannot stand other people doing things that I can do: driving me, cooking for me, doing my hair, my nails, I do not know - I must be weird. However, I do not mind if my, I will call him husband, washes dishes. I love that. He is so detail oriented, the dishes sparkle after he washes them, and the sink is like new. I do not know how he does that. But, he is really good at that. Also he is good at folding laundry. He is actually an expert on that.

So, this is a little bit about me. I am a little bit disappointed that I discovered that some people I respect very much do not have the same set of values as I. But, hey, who says that my values are the best, except me of course. About my values, some other time, maybe. Maybe not?