Gloryfades.org

Still don’t have any internet at our new house so all of my online goings are pretty spare. If you need me, my email’s piratecakes (at) gmail.com Don’t expect a response right away, though!

Oh, and by the way - I’ve moved!

It’s been one of those weeks! I don’t know about your part of the world but spring has really come along this week. It’s been bouncing from April showers to cool, sunny days (like today!) all week and I am loving it. This winter has been TOO long and it so needs to go, lol. So I have several good pieces of news to mention:

1. I’m moving at the end of April! G and I found a place in Toronto and we’re finally taking the plunge by moving in together. It’s exhilarating and nerve-wracking all at once. I’m going from living at home to living with my boyfriend? I would have liked an adjustment period (i.e. living on my own for awhile to “test the waters”, so to speak), but it just doesn’t make sense to move out on my own for a year and then move again to another place with G. Plus, I think we can both handle the changes that will come through living together.

2. I’ve been accepted to Centennial College for the Book and Magazine Publishing programme! I have not decided whether I’ll be going yet, though, because I might have a job with a publishing house already … more details to come once I know things have been finalized.

3. I went to Philadelphia last weekend for a wedding and had a lot of fun. This was my first visit to a major American city and it was a blast! We saw the Liberty Bell, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Eastern State Penitentiary, just to name a few. You’re welcome to see the photo galleries here, here, and here.

So that’s been my life for the past little while. I have been way too busy for my own good and it’s likely not going to change in the next little while either. This week I also made the decision to cut down on my duties at TFL. You’ll likely see the posting soon but I’ll mention it here - I am giving up the FUC and Troubles role for the Movies category. These are the most time-consuming parts of the Movies category and I can feel my control slipping away as I let things build up and up before I update. I don’t want this category to get back-logged so the time has come to step down in that role. I still want to do applications, though, because I still find them a lot of fun! Sometimes you just gotta know when to fold ‘em, though.

Shen at paintmythoughts.org reminded me of this really interesting article on what happens to your body when you drink a can or bottle of Coke. I’m addicted to Diet Coke. While the amount I drink now is nothing compared to the litres I guzzzled as a drive-thru wench at McDonalds, it’s still a lot more than I want to. All of the sugar is replaced with aspartame, a chemical that I know very little about but is linked to such lovely conditions as brain tumors, brain lesions, and lymphoma. Woohoo! I’ll take a Big Mac, Diet Coke and some brain lesions to go, please!

Do you know how I know it’s an addiction? Because every time I want a Diet Coke, I crave it. My mouth begins to water and I start to get edgy and annoyed until the moment I have it and I can actually feel the bubbles burst in my mouth. Water doesn’t do that.

Image source: Natalie Dee

After being bombarded endlessly by road safety propaganda, almost a relief to have found myself in an actual accident.
- James Spader, in David Cronenberg’s Crash

So, I was in a car accident on the weekend. Not to worry! I am perfectly alright and so is G and the other driver. We all came out in one piece. Our cars are another story. I was driving through an intersection when a Honda Civic attempted to turn left. She didn’t see me coming and we collided. My car’s fender, bumper and Lord knows what else under the hood is damaged. Hopefully the mechanic will be able to tell me by tomorrow what’s to be done. I’m afraid I’m going to lose my Cavalier, which I wasn’t quite ready to part with just yet. I mean, I only became the owner of it a month ago. It’s a bit of a downer but I’m trying to see the bright side. If the car is a write-off and I get a cheque G and I can put it towards getting a new car together! Or perhaps furniture for our new apartment?

Yes, we may have an apartment! We started looking this weekend at places. Lo and behold, the second apartment we viewed was wonderful. Coincidentally, we were on our way to an apartment viewing when I ploughed into the Civic. Anyway, I’m trying not to get my hopes up because we aren’t the only ones who have applied for the place but it would be pretty awesome if we did get it. It’s pretty amazing that we managed to find a really great place with only the second viewing. G is a bit skeptical over the marvelousness of the apartment, which is understandable; apartment hunting is generally a long and arduous process. We don’t really need to move until May 1 so we’re taking things a bit quickly with applying for it but I think it’s too nice to pass up. The living room window looks out onto the Humber Valley, it’s on the fourth floor with no one above us or beside us, and the Old Mill subway station is literally across the street. Hopefully I’ll have news by the end of the week about our application.

To that end, my weekend was extremely eventful. Today I picked up a rental car for the week while they fix my car. I have to admit, as much as I love my Cavalier to pieces, the Toyota Camry they gave me is really sexy. I feel older and more sophisticated when I’m driving it! I went to Zellers to run some errands and took the long way home so I could enjoy the ride. It’s pretty sweet!

I won’t get used to it, though. Hopefully my Cavalier will come back to me in one piece. Fingers crossed!

As you can see, I’ve changed the layout once again to a new Wordpress theme. I’m resigning myself to the fact that I’ll never be quite satisfied with anything of my own so I’ve gone out and found something that resembles something to what I desire. Not sure if it’ll last as there are approximately five billion different Wordpress themes I can choose from online presently but for now it will do.

Yesterday’s post was a bit of a departure from my usual entries. I wanted to experiment with a different writing style than I’m normally used to. I’ve never taken a journalism class in my life – which you can obviously tell! – but I think the entry turned out better than I had hoped it would; a little humour, a little (useless) information and some topical discussion. Not a bad mini-essay.

I’m still sort of struggling with the focus of this blog. I’m uncertain about whether I want to centre on a single topic or keep it general to keep people informed about me. Seems a bit vain when I actually write it out, to be quite honest…

It’s never been a day-to-day event type of blog, probably because I live a very boring life. The few people who do come here would no doubt slip into a coma if they were forced to read about what I do every day (which is largely not a whole lot).

This is why I’ve changed the sub-text in the header to read “Sexy profs, itchy feet, and other miscellanea” because it’s pretty apt – that’s basically what I write about! I like to muse, I like to write, I like to broadcast my ideas online. I guess I’m going to just keep doing that for the time being. I don’t see why it should change. The archives date back to 2004. If I haven’t narrowed down a focus in four years what makes me think I’ll start now? It would make more sense to start anew on a different weblog if I were to actually choose one topic. Eventually I might end up doing that.

I really enjoy writing and I’ve been doing more and more of it since school ended. I guess I never really considered myself a writer while growing up but not too long ago I was foraging in my chest (wooden, not digging around in the cleavage) for something and I kept coming across pages and pages of unfinished stories and poems. It made me realize that yes, Olga, you are a writer. You’ve grown up with a pen in your hand, or a keyboard under your fingertips and you’ve always had time to jot something down.

It’s not a huge revelation but one that has helped shape my own perception of who I am as a person, which is important for me. I’m at a point in my life where I’m no longer a child but I don’t really feel like an adult yet, either. Understanding what shapes me and what I am capable of helps me gain some bearing under all of these weird emotions that have been hitting me this past little while as I struggle with my own identity and place in the world.

I hope I never stop writing. Now that I consider myself a writer and I know I find pleasure in crafting words I don’t want to lose that part of myself.

By now I’m sure everyone in North America has heard about Eliot Spitzer’s adventures in Hookerland. The governor once dubbed Mr. Clean for his crusade against prostitution in New York has been named as a former client of a high-end prostitution ring, paying $4300 for, what I can only assume was, the best lay of his life.

I was listening to a gaggle of disc jockeys on the radio yesterday on the way to work discussing the topic. Inevitably, one of them lamented that Canadian politicians never get into sexy scandals. I disagree. There have been plenty of politicos caught with their pants down in Canada.

Perhaps our most notorious sex scandal is the infamous Gerda Munsinger, an East German who immigrated to Canada in 1955. All accounts of the Munsinger Affair claim that not only was she a hooker, but a Soviet spy as well. Given that the Red Scare was at its peak in the 50s and 60s I can’t imagine her really being a spy. Unlike Igor Gouzenko, there didn’t seem to be any repercussions for her being a spy and sleeping with several members of the Diefenbaker (that’s right - John Diefenbaker!) cabinet. Not that Gouzenko slept with any members of the Diefenbaker cabinet. I’m just saying Gouzenko really was a spy and he had to defect to avoid the Soviet gulags.

Like all good Canadian sex scandals, the Munsinger Affair wasn’t revealed to the public until 1966, a good five years after Munsinger was deported back to East Germany, by Minister of Justice Lucien Cardin in a fit of rage during Parliament.

I can only imagine what led him to hurl an insult like, “Oh yeah? Well, at least I didn’t sleep with that Commie slut Munsinger!”

*Crowd gasps; monocles drop*

There was a vague attempt to cover up the truth by claiming Munsinger was dead but a reporter for the Toronto Star, having a valid passport and visa, thought to track Munsinger down in East Germany where she continued to live quite comfortably until her death in 1998.

Apart from this deliciously sexy scandal (Germans! Soviets! Escorts!!!) there have been a handful of other small-time politicians getting their rocks off with prosti’s: Graham Herle, Bob McLelland (in a government vehicle no less!)… actually, I could only dig up two. Not much to sneeze at, is it?

On an unrelated note, how sucky do you think it would be to Google your name if you were one of these people? They say Facebook ruins your life but I say it’s Google. One little sex scandal and you’re branded for life (especially when I splash it all over my website!).

Most recent and most disturbing is the case of Gerald Regan, former premier for Nova Scotia, who was investigated in the mid-1980s after allegations of sexual misconduct arose “dating back for decades”, according to the CBC. He was brought to trial in 1998 for rape and attempted rape of three women but the case was dropped in 2002, except not until after nearly three dozen women came forward to testify against him.

On that creepy note, I wrap up this brief history of sexual deviances of Parliament Hill. I hope I’ve enlightened you all a little more on this fine Wednesday evening.

This post has been generously expanded upon by my own imagination. I’m sure most monocles didn’t drop when Cardin let the beaver out of the bag in Parliament (oh, how I love punnery!).

Sources: Wikipedia.org and CBC News Archives

Well, I officially broke tfl.org, which sucks cause I’m trying to update the Movies category. Oh well, it gives me time to write.

I wish it wasn’t Sunday. I wish it was Monday and I was on holiday for like five weeks. I’m so tired of this winter. I know I keep saying that but I really need spring to finally grace us with its presence. I’m liable to fly away to somewhere warm and blissfully sunny if it doesn’t soon. I dreamed of Ibiza sunrises each night this week.

Speaking of sunny destinations, I’m nearly done writing up my trip to Central America. I need to post the photos on flickr and everything will be ready for posting. I think I’ll post it in a few installments like the last trip to give everyone a chance to actually read it. If you read it in one setting I think you would go blind. I’ve tried keeping it succinct but that’s just not in the cards. How do you sum up three weeks of travel in like two pages? It’s just impossible. I think I’m doing very well, though. I’m halfway through and it’s about seven pages on Word.

In other news, I’m in a play at the synagogue for Purim. I thought it would be scary and bad but so far it looks good. The songs are appropriately funny enough (they’re just famous Broadway tunes with altered lyrics) and they don’t seem to be too upset with a goy nosing in. Plus, in one of the numbers I get to wear a wedding dress, which should be hilarious and nothing short of spectacular cause I’ll get to freak G out, except now the cat is out of the bag… Oops!

Man, everyone should back up their iTunes library if they haven’t done it yet. Honestly, both G and I lost ours this week (mine intentionally, his not so much) and it’s been chaos. With 23 gigs of music how do you find your favourites?!