Welfare, Construction, Karate

Did I tell you guys that a while ago, I found my old SIN card? Yeah, I did. It was with my cheques. I don't write too many cheques, for obvious reasons, so it took me a while to find it. This goes way back when I started this blog, if you can remember, and I posted about getting it replaced. It's a relief that it isn't floating around. As I said before, that's up there with my least-favourite things of mine I'd like to think are hanging around in public.

Anyway, Welfare and Mom finally connected, and we've got a meeting on Friday. That leaves us with five days before eviction to pick up some money and maybe find another source, in case it doesn't field the whole thing.

It's interesting talking to these various people over the phone, because they don't give their names, but you begin to distinguish them based on the sound of their voice, and then judge them as individuals, even though all you've got to identify them by is a voice.

I predicted it would take over a week before we could go through the application process, and that was the Monday before last, so I guess I was right. It actually took a bit longer than I expected...

They're ripping everything out in our building right now. Everything. The ceiling, the walls, people's doors. They're completely reconstructing the building. This has been going on for awhile now, but I never thought to blog about it. It's difficult to get in and out now, because everywhere is a construction site, and they don't seem comfortable around tenants. But there's no option, since I'm not going to stay holed up in the apartment for working hours every day. Today they painted and reconstructed our door. They had to come partway into the apartment, and our door had to be left open. It was okay, though, because they brought their socializing attitude today, and were actually very polite and courteous.

The walls used to be white, and the doors green, but now the doors will be black, and the walls brown. Really... dark.

And we just got a rent increase. I don't know if the two things are related.

Nobody talks about the recession anymore. People complain about the economy, but it seems people are finally resigning themselves to accepting that this is the norm. People will complain about it, but they aren't naming it after a specific anomaly now. Good. I'm sick of people trying to get my hopes up.

Hey, I don't know if this is stupid or not, but... shouldn't post-secondary education be free? I mean, we consider education a right, and medical care a right, and with Welfare and the Food Bank, we kind of consider food and shelter a right. But if the theory behind everyone being educated is that the leaders of the various facets of our society are judged by talent and effort, rather than birth right, that kind of gets stoppered when you have to pay for post-secondary.

Now, I'm probably being a moron. I don't know the full situation too well, but it was a passing, bitter thought, and I thought I might share it.

I'm going to work on some reindeer candycane crafts for Hooked on Beads (Mom's business) tonight. When I explained this assignment to one of my old W2W counselors, he said that that sounded like one of those sweatshop jobs, and when he asked me how much they paid me, I had to say nothing. Sooo... that's a bit of a negative look on it.

Oh, and today he sent me an email to another "youth" (quote-marks because their definition goes all the way to thirty) travel-volunteer program. They're giving out twenty scholarships to celebrate twenty successful years for the organization. It's interesting that he's found one, just like my old high school's Guidance counselor found me one. People really do give more if you can offer a direction.

At least he had a better understanding of my financial situation, though. My Guidance Counselor seemed to have forgotten the reason she specifically offered to pay for my university application. She also didn't remember I had learning disabilities. Well, maybe that means my shame has been forgotten.

Anyway, so since this W2W counselor contacted me, it makes it convenient for me to request a letter of recommendation, since he can sometimes be difficult to catch, and he's just opened the lines of communication.

In karate today, I accidentally socked someone in the face. Luckily for me, it was right after my sensei had finished giving a speech on forgiveness.

Turns out, if you get to a certain belt level, they'll teach you how to fight with a bo staff, and once you've mastered that, they'll teach you how to fight with... nunchucks, knives, short swords, katanas, glaves and battle axes!

Also, the small dojo is open to you for practice between weapon classes and regular classes after you get you become a bo student. Also, they teach kickboxing there. And I think there's a belt system for both weapons and kickboxing, so theoretically, I could wind out with three blackbelts.

Another interesting fact I recently learned is that, even though my dojo has many instructors, it only has two senseis. Apparently, no matter how tough you are, or even if you're a teacher, that title doesn't come automatically. People who teach but aren't sensei are called "sempei", so they still have status. I don't know how you achieve sensei status. I've been calling all the blackbelts "sensei" and nobody's corrected me. I admit, I was wondering if they all were full-fledged senseis, but I figured it was better to risk complimenting someone, calling them by a higher rank, then to risk insulting them, calling them by a lower.

If I might turn your attention to a certain hypocrisy in my blog posts, you'll notice that I've been speaking of being almost out of food and shelter, and then moving on to my experience for a paid service. This, indeed, is quite the hypocrisy, and I don't know if I've blogged about it yet. And I don't want to.