Hillside and holidays

Guess what I didn't do today? Something that most of you suckers had to do on Friday, that I got to skip... That's right, long weekend for me this week!
The event that inspired the day off is a music festival called Hillside which is on an island on a lake about an hour from toronto. Today was just the evening but I already saw a few great acts including one I would highly recommend - a singer called Maylee Todd. Very hip, very fun, reminded me a bit of Pink Martini.
Two more full days to go, plus fun stuff like workshops, drum circles and really good food.
Out was a quiet week for me, although work was busy and promises to be the same next week, too. Without it being entirely intentional I managed to line up three long weekends in a row so it's looking like a nice way to end the summer.
Now I really need to sleep or I won't make it through tomorrow's line up!

On Pulitzer Prize winners and Baseball

Well, another week, another missed deadline – story of my life. Maybe it’s because I have too many deadlines in my job! (Good excuse, I’ll keep using it.)

This week I read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which was fantastic.  I only realised after finishing it that it won a Pulitzer prize (well deserved). I’ve read quite a few Pulitzer prize winners and I think I’m going to hunt down some more because I’ve really loved all the ones I’ve read. They seem to pick stories that are unusual, told in a creative way and are on a topic that’s a bit off the beaten path.

Recommendations from the Pulitzer Prize list:

2001: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

2003: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

2006: March by Geraldine Brooks

2007: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

2008: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

2011: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Also, The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen, was a runner up.

I went to the baseball yesterday and now I have an interesting and important debate for you all to think about. This morning I said to my colleague “I went to the baseball yesterday.” And he said unless I went to a baseball, I had to specify that I went to the baseball game. I’m 100% certain that in NZ we would say “I’m going to the rugby” (or cricket). Now, just because rugby and cricket don’t include the word “ball” in their name doesn’t, to me, make them different to the rest of the sports. The name of the sport is baseball. You would say “I play baseball”, “I like baseball”, “Baseball is a waste of time and money.”

So that’s my rant/query. What’s the difference between the word rugby and the word baseball that I can’t use them in the same way?

Birthdays that never end

Happy weekend! This weekend I'm in Hamilton to visit some fam damily, hence the slight lateness of this post.

Last weekend was a busy one. I had birthday drinks on Saturday - very low key and fun. Almost all my favourite people made it :)

Sunday was the Pride Parade. Toronto's Pride fest is one of the biggest in the world and it went for almost 3 hours! It was great to see do many people able to wear their private face in public with total acceptance. Our mayor didn't make it (shock) and there wasn't a float or even a rep from the conservative party but it was great to see groups such as churches and the armed forces out.

That night we tried to go see the Canada Day fireworks but managed to miss them, BUT lots of people were at the beach setting off their own so we still got a show. Went to Cherry Beach on Monday, which is not nearly so nice as the island but is loads better than no beach.

Thursday was my birthday so we got cake at work and I had drinks with some friends that night. Call from NZ, package from China... Not a bad time I guess. Of course I'm skipping right over the fact that my birthday gift from NZ got sent back and I had to make three calls before the China one got me...

Be the donut, not the hole, my friends.

Written on my phone so feel free to mock any bizarre errors.

Swimming,cycling, scavenging - not in that order

So I am newly energised for this blog and intend (once again) to stick with the Friday update patterns. This week’s main event was the Summer Scavenger Hunt with the meetup group I joined. Basically we had 33 tasks/photos to get around the city. Some were very specific: “Get a picture of this sign”; some required chutzpah: “A team member hugging a donut shop employee”; others just paying attention: “Grafitti without words”.

It was quite an active week – I spent Saturday at Toronto Island cycling for about three hours. The island is beautiful and peaceful and I think I might just go every weekend. It’s kind of like heading to the country, but instead it’s just a ferry ride away, complete with beaches for swimming!  So between that, walking for four hours on Saturday, and playing volleyball on Monday I could barely move on Tuesday, but it was well worth it.

Were you just thinking “I wonder what Catie’s been reading, lately.”? I know, I heard you.

This week I read a couple books but the highlight was Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? And Other Concerns, by Mindy Kaling. She’s a writer and actor for the US version of The Office and she’s really funny. Same kind of category as Bossypants, by Tina Fey and How to Be a Woman, by Caitlin Moran (both also highly recommended, especially if you have two X chromosomes.)

And the other book I read this week was The Magician King, by Lev Grossman. If you read Narnia as a kid this series (first book is The Magicians) is highly recommended. It’s an almost satirical take on your standard fantasy tropes, which manages to be funny, realistic and still gripping and thrilling.

Work had a big re-launch this week, now our site is called HRM Online instead of HR Daily. There are reasons, but the reasons don’t really matter. What matters is that I had to work really hard and then I felt like I needed a break but I didn’t have a break… However, this weekend is a long weekend so I’ll be sleeping late and maybe catching the Pride Parade on Sunday.

And final exciting news: I’m going to New York in September, meeting a friend from NZ so am currently in the planning stages. Any tips or advice, let me know.

On shoes and ships and sealing wax...

TWO updates this week! To make up for the total lack the last two weeks. The other (posted yesterday) is essentially a breakdown of what annoys me about the plethora of “Oh no – so many single women!” articles I’ve read over the last year so if you’re not looking for a rant you can just read this one ;)

Things I have done in the last three weeks:

Read some great books

Highly recommended:

The Edible Woman, Margaret Atwood

Ordinary Thunderstorms, William Boyd

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley

Not recommended:

The Black Obelisk, Erich Maria Remarque

Gone to concerts

Thanks to a friend who’s in the know about events around the city I’ve seen Lisa Hannigan (look her up on YouTube, she’s quite good) and The Flaming Lips in the last few weeks. I’m not the most up-to-date musically but live music is always good and Toronto gets some fantastic performers.

Seen some movies

The most fun was Blazing Saddles, last week’s classic movie at the local cinema, which I got a group together for. Fun had by all, and now I keep wanting to ask people “Where the white women at?”

Prometheus was the most recent/big name. I found it distinctly meh. There were amazing bits and stupid bits, but overall as a science fiction movie it lacked a lot of science. However, as a scary adventure movie in space it was well worth seeing!

Eaten a lot of frozen yoghurt

Three places in two hours: it was an epic yoghurt crawl that ended at a bar. That was a nice reverse on so many of my university nights that started with a bar crawl and ended eating junk food. I recommend Yoghurt Spoon on Yonge by Wellesley if you’re looking for frozen yoghurt, and aren’t more likely to just go to the place nearest you.

Books, music, movies, food – that about covers my life, right?

This weekend is a trip to Toronto Island and a scavenger hunt around downtown Toronto. Can’t wait!

All the single ladies...

Another day, another story about how many women will never marry, or are sabotaging their relationships by being too forward, or are going to be single mothers because men are fickle and flighty ... And the main thing that struck me was this: In a country with a fairly even gender split (As both Canada and the USA have) there should be the same number of single men as single women. And, of course, every child has a father (biologically at least). So where are all the stories about single, childless men?

Most of these articles don’t claim that all women are miserable and with they were married, in fact many dwell on the role personal choice plays in the trend, so why wouldn’t we write about when men are getting married, whether they’re getting married and why they might not be getting married in the same numbers as previous generations?

I actually struggled to find clear articles on this issue, and no well set out statistics (unlike about single women where there is a lot of information) but here are some trends I found online:

-In the UK single men aged 30 to 39 outnumber single women

-In Japan 61% of unmarried men don’t have a girlfriend, compared to the 49% of unmarried women who don’t have a boyfriend. (I am unclear on whether this actually just means “someone they’re seeing” and therefore includes LGBT people, or if straight people’s dating lives are all that matter to statisticians.)

-In the USA there are 88 unmarried men for every 100 unmarried women – so there is a difference, and probably a significant one, but it doesn’t seem so drastically different that we shouldn’t worry about those poor single men.

Double standards are ripe across the world, so no surprises there, unfortunately. I just don’t agree with this idea that single women are miserable and single men are happy. It’s one of those core myths that feeds into the notion that women trap men into long term relationships.

Feminist rant over, expect a life update tomorrow that will apparently have to cover three weeks of information because I’m a rubbish blogger ;)

Boom Swagger Swagger Boom

What do you know, a Friday update written on a Friday. Novel.

In the news this week: six flatmates in Utah torture a seventh flatmate in the basement and suddenly my aunt’s concerns about moving in with a psychopath seem more reasonable. So far no signs of psychopathy from The Irish but all that means is that I might never move out for fear of accidentally moving into a horror movie.

So, there’s this other story that you probably don’t want to know about but I can’t unknow it. So here’s what I’ll do for you: a Blind Link. It’s like a test, what wins for you? Fear or curiosity?

Tonight is Slutwalk in Toronto so I’m headed to that shortly. This is where it started, so it will be interesting to see how many people show up and what the general atmosphere is. My friends have already been to the NZ ones so I’m playing catch up. I’m not dressing up, just going straight from work. I dressed up for the NZ ones, and I think it’s a great way for the events to attract attention and try to get the message heard (Although it can do the opposite – “No, it’s not that we want to be able to dress slutty, it’s that you have to stop pointing to what we’re wearing as a reason for people to mistreat us!”). The Wellington event last year was very inclusive so hopefully the TO event will have the same feeling.

I spent last weekend in Ottawa, which was great fun. You might remember my Ode to the Train last blog. That affection was somewhat threatened when my return train was more than an hour late, but really, it’s not like planes and buses are famously punctual.

Busy weekend planned, including Ikea purchases and then assembling Ikea purchases. Livin’ the dream here ;)