A Skewed View

...maybe not all hope. But if you had high hopes, you may wish to reevaluate them. They are still alive. Zippy is even thriving on top -- still can't get his stalk to sprout more leaves, though. FourPointFive is like a Borg: he is half-organic, half-manufactured. And by that, I mean he is spread out amongst six pieces...one "main" cutback plant, and five make-shift terrariumed clippings that aren't exhibiting phenomenal successes, but can't be completely ruled out yet either. It would be cruel to show photographic proof of their pain at this juncture. I'll just let them rest in their hacked apart sorrows for now. Perhaps if any make a remarkable recovery, I shall celebrate it with a picture. Otherwise, it may be most humane to simply let them slip away in anonymity knowing that they tried...their path was simply too ambitious and fraught with foreseeable dangers (ie. Me).

I have not really had much of a chance to process this week yet. In the span of one phone call, I went from 20 months of unemployment assuming I would have to continue searching for my dream job in television in my free time after I returned home from some dead end clerical – or worse, retail! – position, to pretty much having my dream job handed to me. And I started 20 hours later! It’s been a lot of getting up to speed...not the least of which meant getting back into the habit of rising each day and actually going to work! :) I was so tired on Monday night I went to bed pretty much as soon as I got home. But for a first week, doing a job I haven’t done in about nine years, I think it went pretty well. Got a few looks like “Really? You don’t know how to do this?”, but then maybe there’s something to be said for beginning by lowering others’ expectations of me. Then when I catch on, I’ll look bloody brilliant. Even though production hasn’t started yet (this week it’s largely just...

Let us check in on the life I have been endeavouring to nurture: FourPointFive? Check. I know he doesn't look all that impressive -- but I've been trying to find the best place for him, a place where he'll get nice bright but not direct light. He keeps sprouting new leaves, and although none of them grow all that big I'm taking the sprouting as a confirmation that he isn't completely unsatisfied with my care. I think he likes where he is right now. I'm expecting big things from him. One lil' guy broke free, though, and secured himself a place in my makeshift peanut butter jar terrarium. The terrarium may still have the whiff of many deaths wafting within it. We'll have to wait and see how FourPointFive-ette fares... but he's been in there for about two days now. In the past, begonia clippings have rarely lasted a few hours in this situation (how much water does one put in the shot glass of soil if you're going to enclose it in a peanut butter...

...and I don't know HTML, so I have to stick to pre-designed templates for my blog. It's nice. For something hundreds of others probably have. So I relived my youth...and went to an employment services agency today. The one where they look at your resume, and your cover letters, and tell you not to have spinach in your teeth when you interview for a job. Yeah. Not sure I even needed to be told that 25 years ago when I got my first job as a teenager. But hey, something's not clicking here. I'm qualified. I'm competent. Yet I'm unemployed. I could blame the economy. I should probably blame the economy. But since I can't do anything about the economy, I might as well throw myself into busy-work like reorganizing my resume. (Apparently my cover letters are inspired pieces of introduction: my words, not the cousellor's -- I gotta take something non-humiliating out this afternoon -- but she did like them) Bleh. I want a dog. It would love me uncond...

I always knew that one of my favourite things about living in Alberta was the existence of seasons. With few exceptions, you could look outside your window and know what time of year the world looking back at you was experiencing. When I decided to move to Toronto, many many many people regaled me with stories of the frigid, painful winters I had in store for me. If I could remember exactly who those people were, I would ask if they had ever in fact actually experienced frigid or painful in association with winter before. I know not to take people's word for things...but they got me. I feared Toronto winters. Turns out, that was like fearing that there was a gangly garish clown lying in wait for me under my bed after seeing Poltergeist as a child. Pure fiction. The news here has been touting the arrival of "the storm of the Century" today. The Toronto School Board declared a snow day because it is just so very...I couldn't even tell you. White? That's all I can t...

I was hoping that some of the little itsy bitsy bits on Zippy's stalk would sprout, but they appear to have dried up. The watering schedule is obviously not flawless, but has proven to be adequate to keep the top leaves energetic and healthy: And yes, FourPointFive has kissed its big blooms and some of its big leaves goodbye -- but guess what? New blooms! New leaves! Instead of dying, FourPointFive is regenerating! And that was even after a failed repotting attempt. I had thought FourPointFive was two plants in one pot ... not until I pulled it out of the pot did I realize nope, just a really stalk-y single plant. FourPointFive allowed me to put it back from whence it came without punishing me with its demise, though, so I think that evidences some mutual trust and respect going on! Perfection! At least compared to past attempts...

Zippy's top leaves are coming in nicely: And FourPointFive isn't dead! Phew!