I miss my dogs, and I miss my dogs at Bark and Fitz. And I miss Bark & Fitz. The new Kanata store opened on Saturday, and Liz Kerrison of Ottawa Dog Blog took pictures. If you want to see cute, click here.
I finished my SSHRC proposal, after much procrastinating. Now I just have a billion other things to do.
Mostly clean my house, which I'm very good at doing when I'm procrastinating doing other things, but for some reason I never want to clean this house.
I've got to, however, because my parents are coming this week and I've got too much going on to leave it until the night before they get here.
It's weird, I haven't seen my parents since August 1, but I haven't really missed them. Is that bad of me? I guess there's just been too much else going on - first, all the drama of settling in and setting up, seeing off Andy's parents, then school starting and Erin coming to visit, and then more school and slowly getting to know my classmates. So I guess I haven't had time to feel homesick.
But maybe it's also because my old landlords were so horrible to us that I don't miss Ottawa at all. We've gotten back the money they were trying to steal from us, by the way, without having to go to Court. I think they thought we would just accept their unreasonable demands, but they didn't know who they were messing with, and then they realized we could make their lives pretty miserable. So we got the money back.
Yep.
Enough procrastinating on this. Got better things to do today.
Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!
It is also, coincidentally, the fourth anniversary of Andy's and my first date.
And the last time we celebrate it, because this time next year we'll be MARRIED.
Weird.
So I'm making pretzels.
That's the plan so far.
Out.
Last night Andy and I went out with Erin, a friend from Ottawa who's here for a nursing conference, and two of her partners in crime. We decided the time had come to get "screeched in," a time-honoured Newfoundland custom whereby one becomes a true Newfoundlander.
We decided to go to Trapper John's, which the internet seemed to think was a good place to go. We looked up the website and it said that Fridays and Saturdays the screech in ceremony stops at 10pm due to crowds, but when we got there at 9:30, the place was practically deserted, save for an older couple making out while some salty tars played at the video gaming machines.
Luckily, soon after we arrived and sat down at our tables made from old sewing machines, a group of men arrived with a gentleman in a dress in tow. A bachelor party. Soon after that, the bachelorette party arrived to meet them, and so there were precisely 54 of us ready for the screech in.
The bartender was a crusty sot with a stick who kept yelling at us to shut up as we passed around our 1/2 ounces of screech. It took a while to coordinate, but he got us finally repeating the answer:
"Indeed I is, me auld cock, and long may yer big jib draw!"
Then we suckered down the screech - which tasted like over-fermented spiced rum - and kissed a puffin's ass. And for all that we got a nice certificate with our names on them. For authenticity, Andy's and mine are also soaked in beer. Erin has pictures of the whole shebang, so when she gets back to Ottawa you will see them.
So.
That Small Claims Court Claim I was in the process of filing?
Well.
My dad was supposed to represent us on this whole deal, living in Ottawa and all, but he's been super busy with the West End Studio Tour thing starting tomorrow (if you're in town, you should definitely go! My mother is #9) and so hasn't gotten downtown to file the claim.
Which is a good thing.
Because THIS MORNING, I got an email from the old landlord (finally!) saying that, although he didn't agree with any of my claims, he is sending me the amount I demanded, which is the rent cheque for $1350, minus the Hydro and Enbridge bills, and then minus an extra $100 I offered him to pay for the washing machine he says we broke but really we didn't. So I should be getting $1022 back, which is so much better than the $670 he originally offered me.
My guess is that he thought I would be a total pushover about this and just say, okay, take whatever you need. However, he didn't reckon with my perfectly honed legal brain and my Scottish stubbornness. When I laid that email down and then left the ball in his court for TWO WEEKS without a word I think he realized I wasn't going to let this one go. I think he left off replying because he thought I would get desperate and modify my offer. But no, sir! When I'm right I'm right and I know it.
Teehee.
I feel bad for now offering that $100 for the washing machine (which was only worth about $40), but losing a hundred bucks is better than losing several thousand in Court costs.
So now I can go some way to paying my Visa bill, which is where we put Andy's tuition for this term - because that $1350 was supposed to be for his school, not for their rent . . .
I'm really annoyed by this new version of Firefox. While it remembers passwords (at least some of them), it refuses to have them automatically entered anymore, and so I still have to go through the login page for most of my sites. *sigh*
Tomorrow night I have to go to a party. I KNOW, right?
But this one is different. It's being held at a professor's house, and all faculty, staff, and graduate students from my department are invited. And apparently EVERYONE is going. So obviously I have to go. It'll be a great opportunity to meet everyone, and, as the department isn't really all that big, it's not going to be overwhelming. I'm also looking forward to meeting one person in particular there. I saw him at the graduate student orientation, as he was the vice president of the grad students' union. I noticed there that he was an anthropology student. When I was assigned my mailbox, I discovered that we shared a mailbox, and, subsequently, we share an office, as well. Not to mention that he's probably the only other symbolic anthropologist in the department, and his supervisor is the same as mine. So I really want to pick his brain.
Class the other day, by the way, was pretty good. I met everyone in my class, about 4 MAs and 3 PhDs, plus me, and I managed to remember all their names. The class looks pretty easy, actually, just going a little further into the theory of fieldwork and employing a few more methodologies than I had previously done in my other degrees. Some of the projects we're doing I did in my BA, but they have a few more complexities to them here that I think I will really enjoy. Especially because now that I'm a doctoral student, I have a lot more freedom in choosing where I want to focus my energy.
I am definitely the grizzled veteran in that crowd, however. If I am not the oldest student there, I'm the second-oldest, and it seems like I've done a lot more work, research-wise, than the rest of them have. For instance, I've already done field research (in my BA, no less), I've gone through the Research Ethics Board not once, but twice, have extensive interview experience, etc., etc. Plus my project is much more developed at this point AND it's the most original by far. But enough about tooting my own horn. It's so easy to become egocentric when you're a grad student.
The majority of my classmates are taking other classes, as well, so that puts me at a bit of a disadvantage in terms of getting to know them better. The ones I seemed to get along with better are also mostly MA students, so they have a different office from me. Granted, it's just next door, but you'd be surprised at how isolating a single wall can be.
I think this year is going to be fun, however. I'm looking forward to it.
Here's an instance of how small a world it is, by the way. There's this professor in my department who just graduated with his PhD. He's one of the first doctorates that the department produced, so they turned right around and hired him. I was told all this when I was meeting with people back in January, mostly because this new professor is from Ottawa, and everyone thought we might get along stupendously. I didn't meet him that time around, but when I was helping my brother move into his place in Michigan he told me he wanted me to meet this guy who was a friend of this professor. I remember thinking at the time, how weird is that? How does someone out here know this person? How many more coincidences am I going to encounter here?
Then TODAY I was meeting with the professor whose class I'm TAing for, and I noticed that the young prof's door was open, so I popped in and introduced myself (everyone already knows who I am, by the way. There's only a handful of graduates admitted every year and the entire department - a total of 7 or 8 people - decides who's admitted). Anyway, we shot the shit for about half an hour and he was super nice - I guess they were right when they thought that we'd get along. Turns out he's on my committee solely because he found my project interesting (that's a first!). We were talking and I mentioned that weird circumstance back in Michigan. Immediately, the prof was like, oh yeah, that's my best friend - I remember him mentioning one of his friend's sisters was doing a project on hockey.
HOW. WEIRD. IS. THAT?
What a small world.
seriously. I totally did.
I spent a good chunk of friday morning fighting with weeds and grass and small trees. hacked the trees down, did a peck of mowing to the grass, but some of the suckers got away from me and if I have to do everything by hand in this garden then I will spend my life killing grass and not doing any real gardening.
so we bought a weed whacker. seems an odd purchase, I'm sure, but once you come and see the extent of the crab grass in Newfoundland you will understand. it's war.
Update the First:
Heard back from old landlord. He says, sure, you can have your cheque back, but first I'm going to take half of it away to pay for a brand new dishwasher and to repair a whole bunch of things that you didn't break.
I wrote back to tell him that was stealing and haven't yet heard a response. I have in the interim prepared a Small Claims Court claim that my father is prepared to file at a moment's notice. I don't think this guy really realizes who he's dealing with. We are not just pushover students - we are fully grown adults (with legal experience) and I know that he's going to regret this if he doesn't comply. I'd give you more details but they're evidence, so I'll just keep you posted.
Update the Second:
Andy starts school tomorrow, with orientation. Whee. He has real class on Friday. Tomorrow I start Wednesday One of my three Wednesdays of training at C&P. I officially start as the new librarian on 22 September. But I also start school next week, on Tuesday, for my one class.
Update the Third:
We have made some new acquaintances. Kara and Taras, our downstairs neighbours, invited us over on Sunday afternoon for a Ukranian egg-painting party. Kara is leaving Friday to go back to Toronto to attend York and do her MA in design. Taras is a post-doc who works for MUN. We really liked them, and got to meet Taras' post-doc fellows and their spouses. We ended up staying until 930.
Also, my friend Erin from hockey is coming out next week for a nursing conference, so we are making plans to hang out then as well. I think the three of us should get screeched in.