Christmas 2015

Christmas has come and gone, and it was a green Christmas after all. That last snowfall that I thought would stick only lasted a couple of days.

Oh well, some Christmases have to be green. The temptation is to blame climate change, but if people were able to rely on snow in the past, then we wouldn't have classic songs such as I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas (probably not the song name, but I just remember the lyric) and Frosty the Snowman wouldn't have been made with the first snow of the year, which was on Christmas Day.

You have to have green Christmases so that the danger of not having a white Christmas feels real and therefor more rewarding when you do have them. And if a Christmas had to be compromised, I'm fine with it being this one. This month has really dragged, with work, with being sick, with finding a place to live, and with preparing for the move. Dealing with the holidays was just an added challenge.

I told everyone not to get me anything special, and not to expect anything special from me, but I wound up both giving and receiving more than I'd intended, which was pretty predictable.

I'm celebrating in Guelph with my mother and brother.

There's a place in Guelph called The Hundred Stairs, which I'd heard about but never been to. I went on it, and there were 105 stairs. Disappointing.

I finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. I thought it was excellent. I'm sure the jury's out on whether or not it accurately portrays the perspective of someone with autism, but I am very rarely moved by books in the way that this one did for me. There was one scene where I had to put the book down because it was giving me anxiety, and I cried at least twice, in public, because it moved me so. And I don't really cry. Last time I cried was at the end of the Walking Dead video game back when I was taking Human Services Foundation, and the time before that was when I left Mali. It really irritated me that my cry for Mali was such a significant point in my life, and then I broke my record on a video game. But now I have to say that I've cried for Mali, Walking Dead, and The Dog in the Nighttime. Still averaging less than a cry per year.

My mom blasted through The Dog in the Nighttime as well. started and finished it in one sitting, and described the book as an "emotional journey". So even though my field of work deals with people similar to the main character in this book, my mom was able to be engaged just as strongly without such a significant influence. The book is accessible to anyone.

The author of the book says that he is not an expert on autism or aspergers, and the book was made more to demonstrate the experience of being different. And in fact, the main character is never referred to as being on the spectrum.

If I were still doing that Sage Award thing I did on my previous blog (I used to do book reviews on a blog with the word "Sage" in it), The Dog in the Nighttime would surely earn this award.

I'm giving this Book of the Year, although I think my only other reads were Children of Segu, and Into the Wild, although those are both very solid reads.

Dreams

It's finally snowing... Looks like we're going to have a white Christmas after all. We've had one other serious snowfall this year, but it didn't last more than a day before going back to Autumn weather.

I had a dream about a week ago. I was carpooling to Extend-a-Family with two of my old SSW peers and someone from my New Story training. Then we noticed that nobody was in the driver's seat. We wondered how the car had gotten onto the highway and appeared to be steering without a driver. Then we realized it was because the guy from New Story was pressing buttons in the back seat. But he hadn't realized that that would make the car move, and he wasn't really sure how to drive it. So we all started frantically trying to figure out how the back seat driving worked, but it was unsteady and we wound up veering off the road into a swamp. I saved my backpack but lost my shoes.

And then last night I had a dream that one of the Malians from Canada World Youth gave me an all-expense-paid trip to Mali. I caught up with my host family in Karadie, then met with the person who had called me, as well as my Counterpart who he'd also called. Turns out, he'd made these preparations just so that we could do a simple delivery. It was on the other side of the nation, though, and we were on foot, so it would be a journey. As we passed the different villages and cities, I was surprised over and over again that people I knew from Canada were there. I ran into some old coworkers from when I was at the Info Desk, and I ran into an old coworker from the Summer Program, who was there because Mali "has the best gym in the world" so he had to make the extra effort to cross seas.

Sick

Ugh... I'm sick. Sore throat, low appetite, low energy. Think I've had a fever. Better not be the flu. I've had my flu shot.

Told my coworker and she ran a care package over to me. So nice. Got a lemon and a jar of honey with instruction to add two tablespoons of lemon juice and one heaping tablespoon of honey in a mug of warm water and to drink this regularly. I have, and my throat actually feels way better. She gave me a thing of tomato soup too. I've only been eating liquids, and it seems to act as a go-around for the lack of appetite. Getting some sustenance into me without overwhelming the system.

We managed to get a Christmas tree up over here. Wasn't really going to bother, but my roommate's work threw him a spare artificial tree. And then I set it up and was aggravated by  it's being bare, so I got some tinsel and a tree topper.

The "SSW Completion" post that I was trying to get to be the main Google hit for this blog is now showing up. The one from the first year of this blog is still the primary hit, but one time I Googled it, and I only got "SSW Completion".

Apparently there is a "Griffin Ave" right near where we live currently. Why didn't I get a place there?

I finished Into The Wild, which is a book by Jon Krakauer, who wrote Into Thin Air. Into Thin Air was about his experience climbing Mt. Everest, and Into The Wild was about his investigation of a young man who had passed away after a lengthy excursion in the wilderness. This book was good, but I think Krakauer is best when he's writing from his own perspective. For example, my favourite part of the book was when he was writing a comparative piece between his and the book's protagonist's perspectives, by putting in a bit about his mountain climbing.

I'm reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, which is about a child who falls on the autism spectrum and his investigation of the murder of a dog, and I'm reading The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, which is about an orphaned child being raised  by ghosts.

Homehunting

This is going to be hard to explain.

So you know how I was gone for two weeks for the Extend-a-Family Overnight Camp when I had half a month to find a place? I put my faith in my roommates and they didn't disappoint. They found a central location in a century home with two bathrooms, all-inclusive at a reasonable rate in a neighborhood with many of my current and former coworkers, right by where my cousin lives, and it even came furnished. To the point that it had live plants. It seemed too good to be true.

...And it was.

Turns out it was a sublet situation. I mean, I knew I was subletting from one of my roommates as the primary leaseholder, but I didn't realize that she as well was subletting from the original owners. And the original owners decided to move back in in January.

So I've been scrambling to find a place for the New Year.

Last week I had four viewings. I had one at a high rise apartment building behind Fairview Park Mall, where many recent graduates of Conestoga wind up. A general trend for Conestoga students is that they do a year in the Residence, get tired of the high rent and move into student housing. Then when they graduate they move behind Fairview Mall because it's only one bus terminal away from the college and therefor familiar, and the rent is pretty reasonable. There are six high rises behind Fairview: William I, William II, Gresham I, Gresham II, Cedarwood, and Highpoint. I think technically they all have unique names (William I is also called Georgian?) and Cedarwood and Highpoint are a pair in the way that William I and II and Gresham I and II are pairs. If I hadn't gone with my roommates, I was planning on following the trend and getting a place in one of these six buildings.

It would be like moving away from my coworkers and back into my college community, now in the form of recent graduates.

Good accomodations. Gresham had a swimming pool, sauna, gymnasium, leisure room (with ping pong and foozeball), and a tuck shop all located within the building (in a strange section connecting the buildings called the "link"). William had all that plus ensuite laundry (but they had no spaces available)

When I did the tour of Gresham, they asked me if I wanted hardwood or carpeted flooring, and if I would rather be higher or lower in the building, suggesting they had a selection. Then we went to do a viewing and we went into one, which my tour guide said was dirty from previous visitors, and so she led me to another vacant apartment on the same floor, further leading me to believe that there were a number of vacancies.

I submitted an application on a Wednesday and they said they would get back to me on Friday. I called Friday and got someone saying that there was no business that day because of an office party so I should call back Monday. Called back on Monday and they had apparently lost our application (what were they doing at that party?). Promised to get back to me the next day. The next day they called to let us know we had been rejected.

I asked why and the woman said she didn't know, because she just sends it away to get checked and it comes back with a confirm or deny. She said it usually has something to do with credit, and  that no, there was no one I could speak to about it.

I'm comfortable speaking on that, because I know my credit is immaculate. I've been living independently for two years and have paid rent on time without exception. I have a credit card and phone plan, both of which I've had for about a year and have never failed to pay on time. My only blemish is that I'm not as established as some.

But this pulled up certain fears. If an invisible entity that even the person choosing applicants doesn't know is calling the shots, does that mean this same entity is casting judgments on everywhere we apply? And if it is, won't it give the same answer no matter where we go?

I picked up the pace. I applied for an apartment, but half an hour before the meeting, and me being on the bus headed toward it, I received a call saying it had just been sold. I applied to another apartment, and when I got there, it had sold it's last two-bedroom before I arrived. Places were being advertised, toured, and applied to within a 24 hour span.

 I saw an ad for a place going at $700, all-inclusive including Internet, with 3 months rent free. Seemed good to the point of suspicion. It's near the Waterloo Universities, so it might be kind of a student hosuing area, but at these stats who cares? I contacted them and they got back to me within two minutes, asking me to visit immediately. I say yes, but I'm worried I might get beat up or something.

I show up and it's a beautiful building, with all the accommodations you could ask for. I enter a proper office and meet a fellow who gives me a tour. Place isn't sketch in the least.

...Except the rent isn't $700, it's $1600 to $1900. Don't know where $700 came from. I'd say it was per head, but $700x2 is $1400, not $1600, which is their lowest rate.

...And also, they changed their availability from January to February... during the time it took me to bus over. The guy pitched a February spot hard, to the point he extended the three month free rental deal for me and contacted me today, even offering to contact my landlords to try and convince them not to move in until February, or to get me to couch surf until February for a place there. Yeah, not happening.

And those were those four viewings! I also viewed a building on Queen Street, which had everything Gresham had, plus a proper gym (weight room and cardio) and a hair salon, and I viewed a place of Forest Glen Plaza, where I picked up the interesting piece that rent is determined by the floor of the building. The higher the apartment, the higher the price. Strange, because I always favoured lower apartments. Less travel time, usually closer to the laundromat, and less likely to get killed by a tornado. Also, I'm afraid of heights, so the view isn't exactly an advertising point.

I had another set of four lined up and a couple more strategies... but I have a place! I was the one who found it, and it's a proper lease. I won't do too much elaboration, since I don't reveal my exact location on my blog. But you can know that it's not at William, Gresham, Cedar, Highpoint, Sage, or Queen apartments. Probably narrows it down quite a bit actually, haha.

New Story 4

A little while ago, there was an attack in Mali. It was in Bamako, the capital, where we stayed a number of times. The attack was apparently made by Muslim extemists, and it was done on a hotel. A lot of the victims were tourists.

I finished my last session of New Story Training. When I originally saw their schedule, and saw that the fourth session was a month away from the third, I thought it was just bad scheduling. Like, the room was available three days in a row, and then the next availability was a month later. But they actually wanted to act as facilitators, and to give us the chance to work on and follow up with our partners before coming back together to review how the facilitation process went.

My phone has become very difficult to charge. When it first started giving me trouble, it was a matter of me placing the plug very precisely within it and then not disturbing it. Eventually, it needed to be angled in a way that wouldn't allow for standard positioning, so I'd prop the plug on a pen so the charger was at an incline which allowed it to fuel the phone. Now it needs to have pressure applied to it or it won't charge. I solved this problem by taping a pen to the charger to create handles, then wrapping a rubber band around the handles and then the top of the phone to create consistent applied pressure without me holding it. Still, if it's becoming this difficult this fast, I worry that it will regress to a point that I can't use it.

I think the problem is the plug to my phone, and not the plug of the charger, because I've tried another charger on my phone and it had the same issues.

I really rely on my phone. One time I was walking home to catch a bus late at night and my phone was dead. When I got to the bus stop, I decided to do an EasyGo text to see when the next arrival would be. Then I realized that I needed my phone to send the text. I didn't think that was a big deal, after all, it was at most an hour wait, so I'd just check the time and track the hour. But I use my phone for the time, so that didn't work. I wanted to check to see if there were still buses at that time of night, but of course I can't verify that without my phone. I thought, worst come to worst, I'll go to a pay phone and call a cab. But I didn't know the cab number, their number was in the contact list in my phone.