At least my casserole was good…

Let’s just be honest and admit that Thanksgiving was sufficiently miserable that I’m feeling pretty secure in not being too excited about that other holiday. Aside from watching this movie again and deciding I liked it even more the second time around, there was precious little to recommend this particular Thursday in November. But having just talked to two friends who had an even worse day (week), I’m keeping mine in perspective.

Random Thursday night stuff for your viewing pleasure:

Hmmm. A job that (1) has lots of high-end requirements, most of which I could meet, (2) is located in a ridiculously expensive place where I don’t want to live, and (3) pays astonishingly little given the first two points. Oh boy! Count me in!
Wasn’t this originally a sight gag at the end of a Bugs Bunny cartoon?
Even though his mommy dresses him funny, this guy clearly gets it. And extra points for the brilliant term “cupcake urbanism.”

Nighty night.

Videolog: Ces bottes sont faites pour marcher

Emilie-Claire Barlow
Ces bottes sont faites pour marcher (2012)

By the lake

Three part series on the Toronto area’s lakeshore motels, the last of which was torn down this week.

Randomly Friday afternoon

Stuff for a quick break from writing job descriptions and assembling reappointment paperwork:

Montreal gets first anglophone mayor in a century: This is presumably related to all the goodwill I generated when I visited and tried to speak French as much as possible last month.
Bolland – The Domino Theory: Loved this in 1983. Still pretty much do.
Farewell to the Beach Motel — and Etobicoke’s legendary lakeshore strip
If any state can secede, it’s Texas: If any state should secede, it’s Texas. Or Alabama. Or Mississippi. Or Arizona. Or…
Vintage Vancouver: Archival film from the City of Vancouver Archives: Vancouver is at the forefront of my consciousness right now mainly because the three Vancouver-related books I bought in Canada ended up on top of the pile when I got home and are the first ones I’m reading. So it’s timely.

Back to work for another hour or so before departing to go to a retirement party. I’ll probably be here a good chunk of the weekend too, alas.

A new tradition

It’s been a very tiring couple of months. The scorecard since September:

One month with Mom in the hospital.
One hellish week getting her situated in a new part of her assisted living facility.
An average of three exhausting phone calls a day…every day…from my dad, most of them repetitions of earlier calls (or worse, repetitions within the same call.)
One friend and coworker dead after a three-month illness.
Three big HR issues.
One two-month delay in a major aspect of my grant project.
One fun but not very restful road trip.
And, oh yeah. One reappointment package (the first baby step toward tenure) due in December, which is not quite as labor-intensive as a thesis but is pretty damned close.

So…

I’ve decided that if I can get all my paperwork done before Christmas (and if I still have my sanity) I’m going to do something terribly out of character the week after. I’m going to take an actual relaxing vacation. One where I sit in a nice oceanfront room by a freezing cold beach and just watch TV and read all those books I brought back from Canada. One where I feel no compulsion to cover lots of exciting new ground nor take lots of pictures of old supermarkets. And one where I will accept phone calls and email on my own terms.

I’ll probably hate it, but I will at least have tried it once.