So I haven't had much time lately, but for all the right reasons! As most of you probably know, I recently graduated from university and have been on the post-degree job hunt. Luckily for me, I didn't have to move very far from The Best Office Ever - I landed another job just a few buildings down at the Student Success Centre. The most exciting part is that I continue to work in a similar role: tracking, coordinating, analyzing, and planning, that still involves students, but, for the first time, I have my very own office IN A LIBRARY with a pretty fantastic view of main campus. To say that I'm excited about what the future holds is an understatement.
I wasn't the only person experiencing new things this week... the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Sustainability Resource Centre finally happened and the space is OFFICIALLY OPEN. It looks great - it's hard to believe that only a few months ago the space was Rogers red with a hodge-podge of furniture. Now it's a beautiful, bustling area where students are hanging out, writing on the chalkboard walls and sharing their interesting ideas about sustainability. I can't wait to see what is going to happen and how people are going to continue to interact with the area. As if there weren't enough changes, I've also just found out that my roommate will be moving in with one of our friends who recently found out he'd have to move. While I think I might take some time to bask in the life of solitude for awhile, I think it will be interesting to find someone else. I've lived with three people so far, and I'm curious to see who number four is!
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May my legacy at the Office consist solely of my song swap contributions.
N.A.S.A. - Gifted (ft. Kanye West, Santogold, Lykke Li) Bombay Bicycle Club - LUNA London Grammar - If You Wait (Jacques Lu Cont Remix) The Platters - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes Milky Chance - Flash Junked Mind Snakadaktal - Fall Underneath Kavinsky - Nightcall Wintersleep - Weighty Ghost G Frsh - Hardest Part (ft. Sonny Reeves) G Frsh - Falling High (Ft. Sonny Reeves) P Reign - Realest in the City (Ft. Meek Mill and PartyNextDoor) The Walters - I Love You So K-Os - Crabbukit Chance the Rapper - Everything's Good Foo Fighters - M.I.A. It finally happened! Friday, September 26, after months of proposing, pitching, and planning, the University of Calgary finally hosted their first Farmers' Market on campus. It didn't happen without some bumps along the way, but the reception from the campus community was amazing. Despite the rainy afternoon. people came out in droves to pick up fresh produce and fruits from The Apple Lady, Leaf & Lyre, Country Thyme Farms, and Shirley's Greenhouses while talking about food with the U of C Aquaponics Club, the Communal Table program, Canadian Food Grains Bank and more! I kept hearing people asking "when's the next market?" amidst exclamations of "this is so, so cool!" or "this is great!" I was floored by the responses, but not surprised: campus wants healthy, local food! Yes! I'm really excited to see where this pilot market takes the University of Calgary... it's evident by the turn-out and the response from vendors that this is something the campus is excited about and a precedent has been set. It's important that the Office starts to talk to other departments and stakeholders on campus and discusses the potential for more markets (or - fingers crossed - permanent markets). It's been especially hard to make all of this happen while not working at the office as I'm pathetically entangled in a world of shared network drives and Outlook calendars that I can't seem to to function without, but I think that if they did start thinking seriously about the future things can go much smoother using what we've learnt here. The patience of the vendors and campus groups working with me for this pilot did not go unappreciated.The logistics and support came from so many groups and I feel truly grateful to have had so many people on my side removing potential obstacles and barriers to help propel this movement. If this is to continue, we can't always count on getting lucky (or the generosity of other departments) and running with a budget of $0 - although sometimes all it takes is just someone getting permission for something to happen. While I'm going to miss working on this project and working with the university, I'm excited to see what happens next for food on campus and will hopefully be in town to buy fruits and veggies when someone else takes on the next University of Calgary Farmers' Market (whenever that will be)!
I've been trying to find a balance between my new job and my previous commitments with little success. Long commutes coupled with windowless training rooms where everything is scheduled down to the minute (including a gratuitous 3 minute pee break) are starting to wear me thin, and although I'm spending a ludicrous amount of time just sitting at a desk I am exhausted at the end of the day. My mood alternates somewhere between anxiety over finding another job and frustration about putting myself into this scenario. Mostly, I can feel myself quietly slipping into a space of hopelessness, which is ridiculous given that if someone were to tell me that THEY were experiencing this situation I would metaphorically slap them in the face and tell them to wake the fuck up and get back to reality. Because reality is that there are lots of opportunities and no end of options. I just need to remind myself of that sometimes.
So I had my last day at the office. It was every bit as bittersweet as I had imagined: all the excitement of starting a new chapter in my life mixed with the heartache of leaving some of the greatest people I've ever met. Naturally, we celebrated our departure with candy. Our boss, Dex, was not invited to partake and instead was given this tiny crime scene, complete with "crying crackers" which can only be flavoured using the salt from the tears you shed while eating them (or in this case, desk-sized peanut butter). Gina chose to pick up soul food at Holy Smoke and have a delightful picnic at the cemetery; the joke, of course, being that the end of our work signified the death of our careers. While we weren't able to symbolically bury our resumes (as suggested), we were able to watch three juvenile hawks learn to fly and attack gophers. Much to Gina's delight, it also rained for most of the afternoon. Far less original than Gina, my Last Supper was pizza. Dex ordered from La Pulcinella and went above and beyond with hand-made marshmallows, salted caramel pieces and macarons from Yann Haute Patisserie (as if it wasn't hard enough for us to leave already). Everything was incredible, and if you thought it would be difficult to chow down on these goodies after the smorgasbord of candy, you'd be wrong. As it that wasn't enough, one of the new interns brought in a cake, and yet another brought us presents! Apparently we're not very difficult to shop for: Gina got a mini-Godzilla action figure and a graphic novel about a cat who doubles as a mad scientist, and I got a seed kit and leaf bookmarks! Not to mention the most wonderful Janice Beaton set of fine European cheeses with tiny Parisian crackers and dried cranberries, which I can enjoy while wearing my new "I <3 Cheese" shirt. I really couldn't have asked for a more wonderful year with more wonderful people. While I'm still technically employed at the Office until the Farmers' Market, this still felt very... final.While my mouth was full of candy, my eyes were filled with tears. Here's to starting over!
In any one day, I come across a number of thought-provoking and interesting videos (a blissful side effect of working in an office). This one, by Xianjun Shi, has had a considerably greater effect on me than most of what I see. Perhaps it's because I'm feeling particularly melancholy and lost as of late, but I've watched it at least eight times already. And I'm still watching it.
It's comforting to remind myself that all of my favourite people manage to balance philosophy and physics. Personally, I can't understand concepts like chirality unless I think about them in the context of poetry, but then again I've never felt firmly grounded in reality. I can work on that later. For now, I will just resist the urge to reduce the world into circles and squares. (Find the original video where I saw ithere, but I recommend watching it and all her others onher site.) Two weeks left. Two weeks left. Two. Weeks. Left.
Gina and I are considering starting a post-OS support group for those of us who have come and gone. There will be cocktails. There will be cats. There will be significant cuddling. Not unlike being at the office, in most regards. For the time being, we are drowning our sorrows with ice-cream lunchtimes and poutine consumption. Everybody is on vacation today so it's a short list. Beverly - Madora Dawn Golden - All i Want (Manila Killa Remix) Shugo Tokumaru - KEXP Live Session: Katachi, Poker, Linne, Rum Hee Gold Panda - Brazil (Slow Magic Remix) Pros & Cons A Tribe Called Red - Red Skin Girl ...with one tribute to Robin Williams. New staff, new songs:
XV - Never Noticed Scarlett Johansson - One Whole Hour Five Finger Death Punch - Bad Company Aerosmith - I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing Matthew & The Atlas - Pale Sun Rose (TEEMID & FDVM Remix) Ken Domik - Rock The Poutine Lee Fields - Still Hanging On (Acoustic) St. Paul and the Broken Bones - Broken Bones and Pocket Change Yamantaka // Sonic Titan - One Logic - Let Me Go (Ft. Lykke Li) Kid Cudi- Brothers (Ft. King Chip & A$AP Rocky) Blondie - Heart of Glass Dustin Tebbutt - The Breach Dustin Tebbutt - Bones Lorde - Everybody Wants To Rule The World Break My Fall - Golden Coast Cyanide & Happiness - Daydreaming Cat Stevens - Peace Train Trampled By Turtles - Wait So Long Jason DeRulo - Talk Dirty K Camp - WWYD Weird Al Yankovic - Tacky USS - Ying Yang Bloc Party - Banquet Freddie Mercury - Love Kills Devendra Banhart - Lover Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive Bon Iver - Calgary Morandi - Save Me So it's National Farmers' Market Week in the United States this August 3rd through 9th. Given that I've spent an ungodly amount of time researching Farmers' Market-related information in the past few months, I felt it necessary to contribute something to the conversations that are opening up online. Here is a radio segment, first aired July 23, 2014 on CBC, that addresses the question "are Farmers' Markets actually worth the time and money?" I'll be the first to say that I find their answers quite dissatisfying and sometimes even plain wrong, but I think that some of the assumptions made are indicative of certain voices and opinions that are quite prevalent in Calgary and should be addressed. I'm trying to answer my own questions regarding the authenticity, community, and relevance of Farmers' Markets in Alberta (along with the suite of issues represented by the categories of food associated with them - organic, local, grain-free, vegan...), and I think it would be really interesting to follow-up some of the assertions made in the segment ("is it really a market if you can buy kiwis?").
It'll be interesting to see what other discussions and questions occur as a result of this Farmers' Market Week; hopefully there'll be some useful resources and papers that we can use for our U of C info sessions! |