Red Cedar

an election fact

Posted on January 24, 2006 by Megan

quickly – you do the math:

i live in the “West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky” riding (this includes Powell River, Gibsons, Sechelt, a bunch of islands, West Vancouver, Squamish and Whistler). my riding has a total population of 124, 572. please note – this is a *single* riding, with one elected MP.

PEI (the island-province on the other side of the country) which has a population of 138,000 includes *four* ridings. yes, that’s right… a population of approximatley the same size receives four members of parliament. in fact the “city” of Charlottetown with a population of 32,245 has one all to itself.

does anyone actually know how our ridings are supposed to be divided up? can you explain? because it’s sure as hell not rep by pop which is what i learned in school.

the longest january.

Posted on January 24, 2006 by Megan

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i just realized i have to start swimming daily again… if only to improve my energy and disposition which has lagged a bit recently due to a combination of stress, insomnia and intermittent despair. since the beginning of december, i have been pretty much inactive other than the occasional hike, and i need something more regular to give me the strength i need right now. everything seems like a lot of effort today, even though i did manage to get a good night’s sleep and i’m not even upset about yesterday’s election results (like all good canadian leftists, i feel it could have been much worse – and look! the ndp gained 10 seats).

have been turning over in my mind the possibility of stepping back from my union work somewhat as i have found it endlessly frustrating and rarely rewarding. i don’t know how to do that without quitting entirely, so i’m making a list of all the things i am doing in the hopes i can pare some of them off (or at least stop taking new cases on for the time being), to stave off the burnout i’m afraid i’ve almost reached.

we’ll see. i often think i need to “take a break” but rarely do it. i am looking forward to a visit from someone i haven’t seen in a few months this weekend and hopeful that the weather will co-operate and give us lots of less-wet openings to go for walks. i don’t know if it’s the election, the rain, or darren’ current legal situation – but this has definitely felt like the longest january ever!

my friend bear, currently traveling in thailand, sent me an email last night asking what was new in my life (he hasn’t been reading the blog obviously) – thus i could summarize my life for him in three major bullets: i’m planning on having a kid, my friends are facing multiple indictments or considered fugitives, and i shagged the neighbour on saturday night. yes, there is good and bad and weird in every single thing.

but – thank you ipod! gypsy brass is the soundtrack that makes it all seem better.

the kind of day it is

Posted on January 22, 2006 by Megan

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yes, okay, it’s true. i feel guilty about posting the following account just after posting darren’s support update. but diversions are necessary, otherwise i’d be sitting in my house working non-stop on this stuff or staring at the wall in a depressive stupor. it’s incredibly alienating to be so far away from the people i most need to be close to in a time like this.

yesterday i went out and met a guy who responded to my craigslist posting at a local coffeeshop. he works as a log-scaler at the local sorting yard (which apparently is the biggest log-sort on the west coast – who knew?) – anyhow, beyond that he turned out to be a pretty decent conversationalist, and we spent a couple of hours chatting. i don’t really think he’s necessarily my type, so although i might see him again, i’m not too into progressing it into anything else.

i came home after the coffee, sent out a bunch of email and talked to a couple people on the phone (including my mother who is a little worried i’m going to get raided by the rcmp or lose my job because of darren – at least she seemed to accept my assurances that those are highly unlikely scenarios at this point). i had fixed it in my mind earlier in the day that i wanted to go bug my next door neighbours and see what they were up to, so around 8 o clock i knocked on the other side of the duplex and joined them for a night of pot-smoking and television watching (yup – exactly what i needed, i’ve been so wound up lately).

i left around midnight and stopped to have a smoke on my front step, whereupon one of the neighbours came and joined me. we talked for awhile and then he came in for another drink and a toke and well – you know how one thing leads to another (especially when you want it to). i’m not sure it’s such a good idea to shag your neighbour, except this one is moving out in a couple of weeks (he’s not the one whose shoulder i cried on, he’s the other one who has been sorta seeming interested in me for awhile). so yes, on top of the zoning out all evening, i got some extra release from the pressure that is threatening to collapse my body lately – and that has left me feeling more relaxed today than i have in a long time (i’m still clenching my jaw, but i’m doing it less).

twice yesterday i was called beautiful – by two different people. how odd given that i’m feeling anything but these days – but welcome to hear it.

my neighbour left around 4:30 in the morning and i fell asleep, but then was awakened at 7:30 by my friend david who needed a ride to the ferry (long story). i gave him hell for it, but agreed to get up and do it since it wasn’t that big a deal (and i was already fully awake from the phone calls). i came back home and went to sleep again from 9 until 1:30 this afternoon when i got up and made breakfast.

i have been working on support stuff the rest of the afternoon – just built a fire in the woodstove and finished a bowl of ice cream for dinner – that’s just the kindof day it is i guess but i’m feeling alright about it.