Catching up and whatnot

So, easily the biggest thing going on with me right now is that there's a possibility that I'm going to be moving to Canada (specifically, the Vancouver area) sometime in the next year or two. Ok, that sounds really out of the blue, so I should probably explain.

My boyfriend and I have been planning on doing this at some point for various reasons, but he's had absolutely no luck finding jobs here. I mean, not even retail or food service jobs. While he's still looking here for now, we're formulating our own plans of him moving back and me following him.

It's exciting precisely because it's so vague; I can be all giddy that I won't have to have a long distance relationship anymore, get to marry the man I love, and explore a new country, but I don't have to work out all the financial details yet or deal with my parents' reaction (I'm trying to slooooowly work into it, so that by the time we're ready to move it won't be a surprise), or the stresses of trying to gain citizenship.

Other than that, I've found a part-time job to supplement my meager income, though the new job still hasn't trained me yet so I can't start. I've been cutting back on spending - both due to only part-time work and now to start saving - and have been surprised to find that it's kinda fun.

Sometimes it can be an interesting challenge, like "here's what's in my fridge, what can I make for dinner tonight?" I realize that it's fun to me because I know that I do have a little extra if I need to grab something from the store, whereas if I didn't have that option this probably would be depressing instead.

I've been returning to my less expensive hobbies like knitting, playing through video games I own, reading, writing, exercising (which is much needed), learning French, and as mentioned above, cooking. While I enjoy a fancy meal or going out to the movies just as much as the next person, it's nice to have something simple to do, and since I'm introverted I don't mind being on my own for it. Though I'm totally splurging to go see The Avengers this weekend, whooo!

Speaking of cheap hobbies, I knit my first pair of socks! Well, err... my first single sock, I'm still working on the other one. It's a family tradition to give each other silly socks every year for Christmas, and this year I've decided to make them by hand - and I'm starting now so I don't freak out in November. While some of the yarn is more expensive, even at $10 a ball, a pair of socks takes me easily 20 hours, so all things considered that's still a good deal, and I find it fun and relaxing too.

5 things I'd like to eliminate + 1 rant

1. Drama - Particularly recently, I've noticed that there are people around me who always have extra drama, and seem incapable of solving their own interpersonal problems without and intermediary. Some of these people are family members, so while I certainly can't be rid of the person (and I wouldn't anyway, since that's throwing the baby out with the bathwater), but I can surround myself with people where that isn't an issue. It's really freeing to not have to second-guess what the people closest to me say and do, and be able to take them at face value.

I should probably note, by drama I'm not talking about people worrying over big life issues (paying the bills, getting/keeping a job, etc) I'm talking about things like - and this is a real example - someone getting pissed because for someone else's birthday, a third party wants to go to dinner at a place 20 minutes away and insists that it's closer for everyone, and then complaining about it for a good half an hour and needing two people to calm everyone down and get things worked out.

2. Excess craft supplies - Oh man, this one's really hard, and it's been a big temptation lately. I keep a pretty good sized "project bag", where anything in that bag is something I can work on, and I have to wait until I finish one project before I can put another in. I'm trying to use up my craft supplies before I move in a few months, but I keep seeing interesting patterns and yarns and I reeeeeaaaallly want to work with them. There's not a lot here I can do except keep up my willpower and work on things I already have materials for.

3. Stress - I've been finding lately that I seem to have an almost constant level of stress. It's not a super high level, but enough to damage my immune system and leave me grinding my teeth and getting headaches. I'm the sort of person who always feels like I just need to suck it up, so it's been hard for me to take time for myself and take it easy, but that's really what I need to do to get myself back up to par.

4. Clutter - Partially because of the coming move date, and partially because it feels good to purge my items occasionally, I've been doing a lot of cleaning and organizing lately, both in my digital and physical realms. It's really cool to realize that I genuinely don't need that much stuff, and an interesting challenge to myself to see how well I can organize it and streamline my routines (Cooking for Geeks got me started on this kick; putting things near what they're used with and finding the most efficient ways to store them - seems like common sense, but I definitely don't do this enough!)

5. Internet comment sections - This morning a news/blog compilation I follow posted about how a 9 year old child from Canada with ADHD, Asperger's and ODD (oppositional defiance disorder) was handcuffed by police at his daycare. The jist of the story is that he was being bullied by his peers, got upset (it's not explained what "upset" looked like in this context), was placed by himself in a classroom, and proceeded to barricade himself in and throw paint around. The police were called in and, before a parent arrived, broke through the door and had him handcuffed.

Being in the field of working with kids on the autism spectrum, I was displeased with several aspects of this story. But then I made a major mistake, an internet rookie error: I read the comments. It was interesting to get perspective from people who agreed with the actions of the daycare, but as I went further back in the comment history I started to find comments that were increasingly derogatory toward his conditions, implying or straight out saying that they are non-existent. And then I found one that essentially said that not only is autism not a real thing, it's just kids acting out because of poor parenting.

At which point I stared at my screen in disbelief for a few moments, then slowly closed my laptop before turning into a giant squid of anger and ranting to the nearest person about correlation not equalling causation and how hard parenting is even with a neurotypical child and AAAAAAARRRRRRRGH.

Ahem. Anyway. All that to say, I like being able to interact on the internet, so maybe it's not the comments system I want to get rid of. Instead, I'd just like some civility, thoughtfulness, and understanding.

I never thought I'd say this, but:

I'm glad that the Conservatives won a majority government.  Sorry, but I'm going to go into Canadian politics here for a minute, because that's the most important thing that's been happening in my life recently.  As someone whose political leanings are somewhat left of centre, I don't support the Conservative party.  I disagree with quite a lot of the things they've done and the things they're planning to do in the near future.  I dislike Stephen Harper and his attitude about government and his abuses of power and his general sleaziness.  My dislike for the party was made even worse by a lot of the crap they pulled throughout their campaign.  So I'm not glad that they won.  But if they had to win, I'm glad they got a majority government rather than continuing to have a minority government like we've had for the last seven years.  At least now something will get done, and even if those somethings are not the things I want to have happen, hopefully either things will turn out alright anyway, or it will be bad enough for people to finally vote differently in the next election.

As for Osama Bin Laden, I just don't know.  I can't help but feel that in some way that it was basically an execution without trial.  I know that there's really no question of his guilt, and I know they tried to take him alive first, but at the same time, it just doesn't seem right.  I don't know.  Revenge is not justice.  Death is not something to celebrate.  I understand why this was done and all, but it just doesn't sit right with me.

Last night, the TV was on in the background, and it was on an American channel when the news came on and they were talking about Osama Bin Laden.  At the same time, I was watching the results of the election come in online.  There was this really strange moment of juxtaposition between watching the democratic process in action and people celebrating something that, frankly, feels really undemocratic.  That's not to say I think Canada is better or more democratic than the US - I'll be the first to tell you that Canada has done some really awful things - but I was just hit by the really stark contrast between the major events of the day.