when does something become retro?

I hate to think that my own childhood is viewed as being “retro”. Has there really been such a huge jump from 90s music to the present? Or so much so that we need shows that like “so 90s” … Any music that is from the past 10 years really doesn’t seem horribly dated. Ok, play a 1992 Paula Abdul video and I will put it in the retro category – but anything late 90s still seems relatively relevant. By relatively I mean that it is still played on the radio, some of the bands are still together from that time and not everyone has made a huge Britney Spears like turn around.
Then again, being retro seems so cool now. Even Madonna has become a retro version of herself. Everyone seems to be trying to relive the 80s, with our leggings, over the shoulder sweaters, and budding coke addictions.
I don’t know…

Then again, there is the generation difference of viewing what is retro and what isn't. When bellbottoms first came out I thought they were the "new thing". First my mother corrected me and told me about the 70s. Then my grandmother told me about the 70s, and the 40s. She said she wore them both times around but wasn't sure how she felt about them in 1997.
With that as an example, then the permissable cycle of reviving a "retro" trend is about every 20-30 years - so that explains the 80s revival.
But for the sake of my sanity - leave the 90s alone!!!!

Canada still one step ahead..

Somehow I am shocked that it's taken so long to get Plan B avaliable over the counter in the US: http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/08/24/morning.after.pill.ap/index.html

And I am saddenned about the age restriction that is imposed on buyers. I don't see how that helps with teen pregnancies, or who this is then supposed to be aimed at - only kids out of high school once they've given up on practicing abstinence?

In Canada (or atleast Ontario), it's been avaliable above the counter, no ID required since 2002. In walk-in clinics and select drug stores. It's affordable (at about 30$ a pop) and the files are kept secret and never given to your health care professional.

I don't see why pro-lifers would be against Plan B - it can not terminate a pregnancy but it helps stop fertilisation from happenning and stops the egg from attaching itself to the endometrium wall. Where is the murder in that? If pro-lifers wish to go evangelica on our ass then they could say that it is playing God and deciding if a pregnancy goes forward or not, but that is bollocks.
Plan B has probably saved many girls in the case of condoms breaking, men saying they will "pull out" but don't and just mistakes... I don't see how it is a negative thing at all. Is the age restriction is just a way of pretending that minors don't have sex? I don't know...

I am a big supporter of Plan B. I hate to say that I am a big supporter of abortion - although I am pro-choice. I hope never to have to be in a situation where I might have to get an abortion, but Plan B is such an easier decision to take.

I still can't believe that the US is so behind Canada on this one...
Shame on them.

Searching for the perfect... place to live

Is like dating and trying to find your prince charming. You go through so many bad dates, until... you lose hope.. and then you're surprised bu what you can find.

I have spend the better part of a week and half looking for a place to live as I am being kicked out of residence Friday morning. A nearly two month stay in a clean, large well furnished place, with a good view, free internet and tv has spoilt me beyond belief. I can't imagine ever moving back into the apartments/houses I lived in while a student at Queen's! I even had a weekly maid service and access to an extra bedroom. It's been great.
Mind you looking for a furnished apartment in the downtown core, that is walking distance from the gallery and that won't suck all my well earned money away... well that is ... Remarkably depressing. Most short term rentals of furnished apartments are of ridiculously smelly/ugly/non lit/out of the way/out of my price range. I have nearly cried on a few occassions. It was that bad. I almost threw a phone at a woman in frustration when her place was fully booked (it was too expensive but seemed ok). I even attempted looking into apartment hotels, which are OK, but way too expensive and sometimes they only had smoking rooms left. I was left, until yesterday, thinking there was no hope for finding acceptable accomodation. Or that I would live with friends of the family, which is ok, but I enjoy my alone time. Not to say that I like to be isolated, but I need time away from the world as to allow my mind to destress, and to do nothing. And watch TV sitting in my underwear and sleep naked and not be afraid that anyone will walk in on me spead eagle.

Yesterday, I frantically phoned all of the posted ads for "rooms to rent" and "furnished apartments/condos". Like before, many people hung up on me when I said I wanted to move in the next day, that I needed a fully furnished place and could only confirm staying until the end of September. That is, until two people said it was a possibility. One of the properties sounded like a dream come true - a condo in the downtown centre, with everything I wanted, a full kitchen, double bed, small living room... I thought there had to be something wrong with it. And all for an affordable price tag. Oh, and it's right in the Byward Market.

My dear friend Jamie (girl) came with me for "emotional support" as she had seen me the day before almost strangle a woman and throw a telephone at her in renter's rage. But once we walked into this place, we just starred at each other in amazement. It's that nice - even has a view! I had found my condo equivalent of a prince charming. I never knew that either were possible. Perhaps I was a little eager as after ebing shown the place I said " Yeah.. so I'm taking it" rather abruptly.

In a very strange way it gave me hope that I could possibly find a boyfriend version of this apartment - ideal, convenient, avaliable (in this case emotionally! ahaha), everything I wanted and more.

Hahahaha. Who am I kidding? Renter's heaven and a perfect boyfriend - that'll never happen at the same time!

"i think my life is passing me byy... "

I have taken to listening to www.Pandora.com in my office while working to create a background noise that I enjoy and feign off the daze-inducing boredom that I felt myself falling into when I had to type of reports.

As I have stated before, certain songs/albums are successful in stirring strong feelings of nostalgia. “Brother Down” was essentially one of the biggest songs from the summer of 2002. That was also the first summer that I worked as a lifeguard at the outdoor North Toronto pool. So it just came up on my “Sam Roberts” play list – I love this song, and I love Sam Roberts. It now reminds me of what that first summer at NT was like… and how far away it is starting to feel. Yet, while listening to this song and sitting in my office, the pungent smell of chlorine mixed with sunscreen seems to float my way, as the splashes and screams of little children fill my ears. It was also hugely successful Canadian rock anthem – and I think it still is. When I saw Sam Roberts play at the Ottawa Blues fest, it impressed me to see EVERYONE singing along. And they all seemed to be smiling too. So many my memories of it aren’t really that unique. Maybe it reminds everyone of a summer, when it seemed that everything was alright.

Generation gap, or not...

There is nothing quite as awkward as your mother asking you why your grandmother has a boyfriend, and you don't...

Yes, this is actually my case. And yes, Renee has asked me this recently.

For those of you wishing to have an update on the Tess-Harry love story saga, they are "en couple" as we say in French. A pair of lovebirds in their eighties, divided by geography and brought together (after 66 years apart) by their undying love (and razor sharp memories). Harry even sent her a gold chain with two pearls on it, so part of him "would be around her neck" just like the cashmere scarf she sent him.

They make me think that deep down, we all love like teenagers.
whatever that means.

Oh, and this just in - Alicia Keys is actually a nun.

what is in a name...

My blog's name and title is out dated.
I was thinking of starting another one/changing the title.. but I'm uninspired at the moment.

My playlist was on random and Nine Inch Nail's "Closer" played followed by Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta". The difference was just.. too much. My ears were in a tizzy.

On another random note, I'm apply to Youth Canada Internships in Botswana (my 1st pick), Malawi and Montreal. I talked to my mom on the phone to day and for maybe one of the first times in my life we had a serious discussion about AIDS and sexuality in conjunction with the slim possibility that I go to Africa. She was concerned but remarkably wasn't condesending (ie she never said "don't have sex in africa").

Ok so I haven't been writting on my blog much, mostly becauseI haven't seen the need... I rarely feel like writting when things are going well.. my journal at home is only written in when i'm depressed/something is bothering me/ or things are starting to get boring.
This habit bothers me in a sense because my happiness goes undocumented for the most part. If I read my journals when I am 84 I might view myself as a highly disturbed and unsettled individual. But I wonder what fascinates people more - despair or happiness? I would say happiness as it seems like such a harder state to achieve.. and even maintain - but then again people who are constantly happy seem so blissfully unaware, like well fed babies. So really what I find more fascinating are those periods of happiness, before boredom sets in, before there is an internal shift. May it be days, weeks, months even. In between there isn't always despair.. but there are periods when your relationshop with yourself requires more attention. It's more during this time that I write, and indulge in other creative outlets - sometimes to escape or take my mind off things - and other times because that is all that i can do to stay sane.

Everything still bodes well in Ottawa but 9-5 is slowly taking its toll and I fall asleep by 1030. I feel like such a grandma.