PRC finally arrives...

Alors, the complication of having a job that necessarily requires interaction with young "vulnerable" folks means to have to get a police record check. Unfortunately, these are only valid for about 6 months after they check the records for you, and then if you're still not hired during that time it isn't so valid no more and you'll have to get yet another one.

Fortunately, my pricey 60$ Montreal PRC and 25$ Quebec City PRC back in 2006 were eventually used to procure a job in Waterloo, so those paid themselves back. The new unfortunate circumstance is that I wanted to volunteer in the local Ottawa schools to tutor mathematics under a volunteer agency (so that I can meet school principals and make connections to get into the occasional teachers list, so that I can finally get HIRED by the school board), so I needed yet another PRC from whoever.

The good news is that Ottawa police will do it for free provided you give them a letter from the volunteer agency. Done. The bad news is that I asked for it back in March, and it arrived in JUNE. Woo! Let's go tutor those kids now! >:( (In fact, it was completed in May and somehow they managed to not deliver it for yet another month.)

I feel like every single step I'm trying to take to get into the education system here is thwarted by another bureaucratic blockade that is determined to squeeze out whoever isn't favoured by nepotism and/or the virtue of being Catholic. (Did you know that to work in the catholic school board as a full time, part time, or occasional teacher, you have to be catholic? Analogous to requiring someone who cooks French food has to be French.)

On Health, Transit, and Sustenance

Since returning from Montreal for Chinese New Year at the end of January, I eventually had another day of supply teaching. Then the next day I developed the flu. And boy was that terrible. I suspect that one of the kids (or all of them, who knows where their grubby hands might have been) had been working on making their teacher sick, and seeing that their regular teacher was not present decided that this was the next best thing.

What made it worse was that in the next morning I had to shovel the nicely packed layers (more than 2) of snow that accumulated on our parking lot, way beyond the level that the contractor had said he'd remove, and the two feet of snow that the street plow generously piled just at the end of the driveway. This was the same morning I was supposed to get to the school again to supply teach that day, and I received an angry call that morning that confirmed my suspicion that I would probably never supply teach there again. And then I got sick.

I did contemplate just driving over the snow (as I have done with the Rav4 going to the Waterloo school), but after removing enough to inch the car through the passage I realized it would have resulted in yet another trip to the garage, and a separate trip to the hospital.

Anyway, I spent two weeks with a fever, then a cough and congestion, and now just a cough. On the positive side, I did have scheduled an interview at another school, when that school (the one with the interview) called the day before and asked me to work at the same time. (They suggested working around the interview so I agreed.) It turns out that the principal was sick, so I was briefed by the vp instead, during the one break in the day that I had. I also managed to expose six different groups of kids with the flu virus, so the cycle of revenge is complete.

***

The Ottawa transit strike is over, so Donnah is now back in her rented room and not stewing in the flu germs in our house. However, it turns out that the city of Ottawa did not "save" $3 million a week that the buses ran on, but lost money from offering free rides to entice people to trust the bus company again. Many people predict that because the bus strike allowed many commuters to make rideshare opportunities (and people met their neighbours who work in the same buildings), the bus company may lose lots of permanent riderships and have to cut back on expenses like, say, the bus drivers. (Oh, but weren't they striking to get better working conditions? Not if there's no business and money for it, buttheads.)

As a follow-up to the previous post, the NCC is now proposing an even bigger waste of money for the interprovincial bridge. Besides the one proposal that their own contractor told them would be the best choice, they are spending an additional 5 million dollars and even longer to make assessments. Ultimately, they will still choose Kettle Island because it will still be the cheapest and least environmentally impacting choice, and then everyone living in the affected region will poop their pants in agony while everyone else will poop their pants from the stupidity.

***

Horse meat burritos, and an overly-buttery, flour-less chocolate cake. Happy Valentine's Day!

Welcome, Transit New Year

Admittedly, the new year has been so for nearly two weeks, but I digress.

Media has already discussed the turn of the new year to be one that is full of hope (Obamarama) but at the same time full of crap (bomb-ba-bomb-bombs). Jason Jones as Baby New Year puts it best: "The Gaza thing - it's like being born with herpes!" (Not that I think babies born with herpes is funny...)

So here's the Ottawa hopeful new year news, besides the ending of the month+ long bus strike: Kettle Island Bridge.

Here's the Ottawa crapful new year news: Kettle Island Bridge.

You're asking, "What's this non-existent bridge, and why would I care about it?" Well, if you never intend to visit Ottawa, then you wouldn't - so you can just turn off your computer and bask in your city's lack of any transit problems. You have no transit problems? Wow.

***

As far as I know, Ottawa's downtown has always been a complicated stew of pedestrians, cars, and 18-wheelers playing Who Wants to Be A Pancake? (Hint - pedestrians win that one more than 18-wheelers.) This insanity is probably due to a huge bureaucratic mess called Everybody's Fault But My Own.

In any sane city, one would want to make a highway system to have heavy trucks bypass busy pedestrian areas, allow express buses to speedily transport workers from the quiet suburbia to downtown cores, and promote public transit and carpooling by reserving lanes on the road.

But of course, Ottawa has no sane people in it (see: bus strike, prorogue, 2008). So Ottawa is left with a downtown full of trucks and buses wrestling for room in an already congested pancake-filled Rideau/Montreal/King Edward/Elgin/Laurier/Everywhere Else.

Unfortunately, none of these things could be fixed in Ottawa because everyone from the borough councillors to the federal government have to be involved in the decision processes.

The current addressable issue is that the highway to Ottawa ends slightly outside of the core, and the rest of the roads to cross over to Gatineau run through downtown. Quebec and Ontario once had an agreement to build a highway on their respective sides that would be joined by a bridge, so people could go straight across, bypassing the mess. Quebec built their side (Aut-50), and the bridge was built. Guess who didn't build their side?

There are only a few bridges between Gatineau and Ottawa, and they all lead downtown. So the Kettle Island Bridge was proposed (cheapest, most convenient, fricking closer to home), and a whole lot of people were happy (especially this blogger), and probably ready to set it up.

Of course, people would be inconvenienced from having a few acres of land repatriated, some increase of traffic and noise to affected areas, blah blah blah. "Build it in another area - not in my backyard!1!!one!" Then a different set of people would protest with the same complaints.

Fight fight fight!

Anyway, the point is that most levels of government decided on this site after many, many, many years of studies, but some people at the local level don't want it there. However, if all the levels of government can't agree, then the plan will be scrapped and everyone will probably have to start all over again with another site. By the time another plan can be developed, more pancakes would line the streets of downtown Ottawa.

House

There's finally news on the Ottawa front - Jorghnassen and I took possession of a house. That is, we did not overwhelm and tearfully bully an innocent bystander out of his or her domicile. We did, however, legitimately purchase a residence in Gatineau that is more likely to be permanent than the other places we've been living at in the last several years.

Before I get all mushy about the move (and divulge more details about it), let me show you my house. (*This is the realtor's photo.)
*
Right now there's nothing inside, as the previous owner had just moved out of the house yesterday and I finally stepped inside the thing for the first time ever. We drove from Montreal to Ottawa to arrive to find the ever-efficient and handy Mme Emond and Hector waiting outside for us, to report that the house was indeed empty and they were ready to start fixing up, cleaning and painting our house. Fantastic!

There are no real complaints about the house itself. It's got its quirks and such that Jorgh noticed after an empty house examination, such as curved walls, a completely lit basement with one switch, and cables running through every room from holes drilled through floors and walls:

I suppose it just means there's more places for TVs to be found in the house. Not that I'd want a TV in every room. Oh, by the way:

...walk-in closet. Or room-sized closet.

We hope our paint colour choices will not be distasteful. For instance, quick sloppy 'shop jobs (and not sure what the actual colours are anymore):


Boy, my 'shop skillz teh suXX0rs.

To be fair, I did drive 8 hours back to Waterloo after visiting, and I had to get a coffee to get through the last hour because we were both falling asleep. Which also explains such a late post.

As far as I know...

This is the floor plan for where we are going to be living. Actually, it's not. It's a guess as far as I know, from the limited photos available from Jorghnassen, the inspector, and the realtor's web site. I seriously have no idea what it looks like.

Anyway, there's three bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms, and a finished basement. Not only that, but there's enough patio and patio windows to complain that there's too much. Oh, what will we do with so much BBQ space??? Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

Jorgh mentioned that there's a possibility of making a third washroom in the basement, thereby completing the trifecta of places to run for toilet emergencies when your two other washrooms are occupied for some reason when there's only two people living in the whole house. I am against this prospective washroom because then that would make it three toilets to scrub. I already hate doing one.

---

In the meantime, while Jorgh and his parents have been busy taking care of absolutely everything else about the house, I've been assigned the task of finding a mover who will not break our stuff transporting it to Gatineau. On one hand, it's not hard to find a mover. On the other hand, it's quite difficult to find the mover who will agree to:

• Not be a douche and move our shit across the provincial boundary (I know, Ottawa-Gatineau?)


• Come to the apartment and actually look at the stuff to be moved to give an estimate


• Come over to our apartment to give a written estimate that isn't ridiculously huge


• Call back after the estimate and say that their written estimate will be ready to be emailed, even though it was written down in front of you while they were here.

I'm just about ready to pick the movers once they actually do the last point.

---

It's very odd to find polite people wherever you go in a city, but (as long as I'm not driving) everyone here has been exceptionally friendly and wonderfully courteous. There really is a small-town feel when I'm going around town, even though it's been reported that this area is actually expanding too quickly for its water supply to catch up with.

If there's anything I'd miss about Waterloo, it's the way people actually regarded each other in their everyday interactions. Except while driving. They're polite, patient, and very friendly. Except while driving. They're very quaint, what with their Mennonites and farmers markets and small community strawberry and apple festivals and their warped ideas about cheeses... so adorable. Except while driving. They go as far as helping a stupid woman take care of her windshield wipers, bringing her to a "mall" when asked, and tolerating our every single critique when we were looking for edible food.

On the other hand, the one thing I will not miss is the food and restaurant choices. This guy puts it more succinctly: "More than half the times I think I haven't got the energy to cook, N suggests we eat out, I run over the possibilities in my mind, and then I get up and cook a meal."

Mind you, I enjoy the few places that Jorgh and I visited, like Raintree Cafe and Sakura Island, but for mind-blowingly awesome you'd really have to go back to larger and/or more diverse cities. Or where they know what a loaf of bread looks like.

Thank you, Waterloo, for teaching me to be less lazy in cooking meals at home because you have no viable alternatives.

And thank you, Waterloo, for teaching me that drivers are just as crazy here as they are in Quebec. I don't feel so bad anymore.

OH YEAH!!! :D:D:D:D

I finally finished marking everything in the gigantic backlog, and it only took ... uh... more time than it should have. But it's done!!!

Jorghnassen's coming back from Ottawa tomorrow evening. He's been on the search for a condo/house, and it seems there are a few choices he's about to make his grand decision upon. :o OK, not yet, because I haven't seen any of them. Personally, I have no idea what to look for except I don't want to be pressured into overpaying for something that isn't worth it. I mean it's not like a mediocre meal at a restaurant - I can't just grin and bear it while people are sucking the money from your wallet (and weird things are happening to your intestine). Anyway we'll see. It's a bit too early to say there's any decision there yet.

I'll have more to say tomorrow after giving the KEYNOTE SPEECH at the graduation tomorrow that nobody told me I was going to be giving until last Friday. Well, you'll have to wait and see if I manage to get anyone to film it. Then we'll all point and laugh at my mediocre speaking skills. Point and laugh. Point. And. Laugh.

Wow, what am I going to do in Ottawa?

Finally, I think it is safe to announce, and it's about time. (I waited to let Jorghnassen announce it but he seems to not have wanted to do the official announcement.)

Jorghnassen has secured his tenure-track position with U.Ottawa, and we are going to be headed to Ottawa by the end of August. Exciting!

This means I will have to bid farewell my current students, and the school where I helped develop one of the most gut-wrenchingly depressing mathematics programs in all of Southwestern Ontario. (Depressing... for them, mwa ha ha ha...) Seriously, if they don't give me a good reference then I'm quitting teaching forever. :(

I will also have to go out there once again and find a job where I will not become blacklisted for being maddeningly under-trained by everyone in charge of such work that I have ever encountered. I've definitely had a butt-load of self realization, development, and reflection happen over the course of the last several years. As for becoming a better teacher? I have yet to understand if/how that can be achieved.

I spent the last weekend with Jorgh in Ottawa, but I had to come back today to work tomorrow. Jorgh has a stats conference in Ottawa that he is attempting to attend, but I suppose I'll let him talk about it.

What am I going to do in Ottawa? Well, that will have to wait. In the meantime I will probably blanket some CVs but one thing's for sure: I ain't workin' this summer.

Some :( and :) but more :(

Some time last week, my mum told me that the water spout leading to the outside of our apartment in Quebec exploded and flooded my room. Fortunately only the floor was flooded, but unfortunately it destroyed all the stuff that was paper and lying on the floor. Which was everything under the bed. She had to throw out all the things that were soaked. This soggy wet pile included artwork from high school, school notes, some other books, and other mementos from the 199X's.

However, I have come to a reluctant acceptance of how these things were by no means something I would miss terribly. They were items that did have some significant meaning at the time, and that is why I kept them. But if they had been of more meaning I would have probably put them somewhere not under the bed. (Kind of like the Clean Sweep philosophy.)

This holiday weekend has been rather unexciting. I have a pile of midterms yet to finish, but that is my own fault for being a procrastinator.

Next weekend however, we're heading to Ottawa to hang out with Donnah. :D Jorghnassen has a conference, and I'm going to be taking Monday off so I can stay a bit longer.

Yes, big news looms ahead...!

In the meantime, I have more work to look forward to. The kids want cookies...