The Mysterious Smell

There is a horrible smell in my front closet, it smells urine-like to me. I suspect it's cat-related. It is driving me CRAZY. It happened before and I cleaned and disinfected everything and it still smelled, but then I threw out the mat in front of the door and the smell went away. Now the smell is back. Sigh...

Kitchen Comfort

I am taking what comfort I can these days, where I can. One of the things I am taking comfort in is Doris Lessing's incredibly messy kitchen table. This picture is from an interview with the Nobel people after she won the prize in 2008.

In the interview, she described feminism in "those days", ie. the early 70s, as "exaggerated hysterical rubbish". This comment related to her description of one particular incident in Sweden in the 1970s when a woman approached her and said "I only read the blue notebook".

I enjoy The Golden Notebook - savour might be a better word - but I connected much more with her Jane Somers novels. Also, I highly recommend Mara and Dann. Really interesting speculative fiction.

In case you are wondering, about my opinion on feminism - I do not think it is hysterical rubbish. In fact, the more I work with young women, the more strongly I feel we have never needed feminism more in this world than we do at this point in time. Feminist consciousness - including the whole spectrum, extreme positions and all - has been a powerful force that continues to provoke people to re-examine assumptions about identities - and not only female identities. For example, I like to see blogs like this one, which examines stereotypes of masculinity and their effects on men's experience and identity.

Whew!

Photo credit! Copyright © Nobel Web AB 2008. (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2007/lessing-photo.html)

New Year. Same old angst.

I'm not really feeling whiny and sorry for myself. I had a bracing chat with a friend this morning, and that helped. Also my horoscope for today told me to take the day off. (Thank god I read it in time!) but yes, same old angst - all the usual old boring problems, trying tackle them in one fell swoop of self-improvement - not a good idea. The older I get, the less interested I am in my own angst.

Ok, feeling a bit whiny and sorry for myself - maybe chocolate would help?

argh. looking for housing

I know everyone lives complicated and busy lives, but can I just rant for a moment? I'm looking for somewhere to live. It has to be in central Ottawa, preferably in a good school catchment area, kid-friendly neighbourhood, clean and well-maintained, large enough for me and a well-behaved, non-hyperactive kid, affordable (1000 or under) and - that's it. That's what I need. If it could also just drop into my lap through magic, that would be good, because I am feeling so discouraged at the thought of re-embarking on the search. I thought I found a place in Ottawa South, but the landlord isn't sure about renting to me because I have a kid. He's concerned about noise in the store below.

argh.