Goodbye Iowa

I spent the weekend of the 11th in Iowa City at my oldest sister's convocation. Jill graduated with a PhD in Women's Studies. The graduation was long and not terribly interesting in itself, but it was pretty cool to see my big sister become a doctor. Jill and her partner India hosted a big party later in the day, full of food, drink and good conversation.

Cathy and Freda were there too, and so were my parents. The best part of the trip was spending time with my family, and I left promising both Cathy and Jill that I would do better at keeping in touch with them in the future. And now I've put it into writing. So I'd better actually do it.

Job Talk

So far I have two jobs for the summer, both in the evenings.

The first, canvassing for the Wilderness Committee as part of their grassroots education campaign, seems like nice enough work. It involves knocking on doors, which I got very used to last year as an enumerator for Statistics Canada, and telling people about the Wilderness Committee. Not too tough.

The second job is something completely new for me: manual labour. I'm laying brick for a small business here in Winnipeg. It's strictly inlayed brick, driveways and walkways not walls and houses. I've worked one three-hour shift so far, and it was both very satisfying and very tiring. There's something very rewarding about being able to see the fruits of my labour, and I don't remember the last time I slept as well or as soundly.

I also applied for a job with Golder, which sometimes hires students for the summer. They don't know yet if they need any help, but if they do, they say I'll be the first one they call.

What do you think?

I'm worried that our cat Perelandra is bored. She's mostly a very good cat, very affectionate, and cuddly, and so far I've taught her to jump through a hoop and to sit, and I'm working on roll over. But we're away from home so much of the day that I'm afraid she's lonely and bored. So we've been considering a second cat.

Pros:

• If one cat is good, a second could be even better
• Perelandra no longer bored and lonely
• Possibly no longer bored and lonely= slightly less destructive/less inclined to suddenly go crazy-go-nuts and attack us

Cons:

• What if the second cat is a jerk?
• Finding someone to take care of one cat when we go out of town is one thing, but to find someone to take care of two cats might be harder
• The price of buying it
• The price of more food and more litter
• What if the new cat won't share a litterbox with Perelandra? Second litter box? Put it where?

Return of the Paul

I fail at recounting Holy Week at St. Margaret's this year. It was good. But it was so long ago now, that it seems futile to go back and blog about it. So I haven't been blogging about anything, because in the back of my head I've been thinking that I will come back and blog about Holy Week. And then I don't.

So I officially give up. But happily Holy Week will come again next year.

Life here is good, though now that school is done I have to find a job, which is daunting, despite the encouragement of many--especially my sister Cathy. Cathy thinks I should get a job workign for Golder, and/or for the Wildnerness Committee, and/or some paid clowning gigs. I'll let you know which/if any of those work out.

In other news, the St. Margaret's youth had our Guy's Night on May 4th, and it was an unqualified success. We spent as much on that night as on four or five other nights, but I think it was worth it (as a one-time deal). Our youth group has tended to be quite girl-heavy, so it was nice to have such a good turn out of guys, including several friends. We went paintballing, ate ice cream and chips and pizza, ran around the church in the dark like crazy people, and played GameCube late into the night. Lots of fun.