Can and Tom Video Blog Number 8!
Posted by Tom on June 13, 2010 at 9:45 am
Subscribe to the comments for this postIt was winter but now it’s not.
Posted by Tom on March 15, 2010 at 10:03 pm
HELLO!
The last time I blogged, I posted pictures of a beautiful day that we had and a walk that Candice and I went on.
Throughout the following week it snowed and got cold again. It then continued to feel like winter for a week or two.
However, over the past week it has been feeling like spring (aka early summer in Newfoundland) and snow has been melting and hats and mitts have been coming off. The nicer weather and warmer temperatures have also helped lift moods a lot.
Here are a few things that have been happening over the past month:
First off, looks like I’m not going to be able to graduate this semester. After a huge email battle with the mysterious and eerie registrars office (since you can’t actually go and talk to them for some ridiculous reason) and multiple blows to my self-esteem, I discovered that I am six credits short of the requirement. I mostly blame this on York’s poor communication skills (they must have received “needs improvement” remarks on their report cards as kids), as I was under the impression that I actually had more credits than I needed. *sigh* So after considering contemplating dropping everything and not graduating at all, I’ve come to terms with it (more or less). I’m in the process of figuring out how to complete these six credits over the summer by doing distance courses through MUN. Memorial must think I’m nuts, with both an application to get back into there for undergrad courses AND trying to get in there for grad school (and if anyone reading can help speed either process along, that’d be awesome!).
Second! Better news! I’ve got a new job! Kinda! I’ve started writing and taking photos for a blog here in Toronto called BlogTO. It’s a great website that talks about all types of different things going on in the City of Toronto. My articles are concert reviews and photos, and you can see the first three of my posts by going here and here and here. The second and third posts are from Canadian Music Fest, a five day music festival spread across the entire city featuring hundreds of bands at hundreds of venues. Because of my connections to BlogTO I was able to get a Media Pass for the whole festival, which basically allowed me entry to any show for free! The job doesn’t pay much, but I do get entry to shows covered, plus it’s great practice and a little bit of exposure. Besides all that, I’m glad to be able to do something new with my photos.
Third! Great news! Friends visiting us! One of Candice’s best and oldest friends has been in the city for the past couple of weeks and they’ve taken some time to have some awesome times together. Also (!!) our fantastic friends Amy and Steve came to visit this weekend! It was a super quick visit but we were able to introduce them to Ethiopian food, introduce them to the best place in the city to get beer and cake, order sushi at midnight, go shopping, check out Kensington Market and eat burgers, and have generally awesome good times (good times). It was amazing to spend time with them, and neither of us can wait to get home soon to spend more time with them and our other friends back home.
Oh, and in case you’re jealous of all the cool things Amy and Steve got to do while they were here, you can too! All you have to do is call/email/Facebook message/Twitter reply/comment on this blog post and come and visit us and you can have fun too!
That’s all I can think of at the moment it terms of recent news, and we wish we could let you in on our plans for the next fews months, but unfortunately we barely even know what we’ll be doing come mid-April. We’ll let you know when we know.
Adventures Are Had
Posted by Tom on February 22, 2010 at 11:16 pm
Even though winter is ridiculously gross and cold and gray most of the time, sometimes the sun comes out and you get an opportunity to do some cool stuff.
For example, this past Saturday we went to see the Barenaked Ladies!
CTV held a free Olympics Spirit day at Nathan Phillips Square and we got there just in time to watch a full set of awesome from the Barenaked Ladies. For a long time I’ve said that they would be one of the few bands that I would pay to see in a huge venue, and they were just as good as I’d hoped (and it was free!). They played a lot of their hits as well as a few new (post-Steven Page) songs. Great afternoon.
The following day the sun was out again and it even warmed up enough to go outside without almost dying from the cold. Candice and I decided to put on our sunglasses and travel to the International Discount Foods in search of some delicious European chocolate.
We trekked over a frozen soccer field and eventually made it to the IDF where we spent some time browsing through the items we couldn’t read.
As fun as this all seems, the story has a very sad ending. Unfortunately, after close inspection, almost all of the chocolate in the store “may or may not contain gluten”. There was one bar that did not have this warning on its label, and upon trying to purchase it the cashier tells us that we didn’t have enough to use a credit card, and neither of us had enough cash or a debit card. So we didn’t get any chocolate.
Tragic.
However, we live to eat chocolate another day.
Engage-a-versary Dilemma
Posted by Candice on February 19, 2010 at 8:56 pm
Hard to believe, it`s been almost a year since Tom and I were engaged. Or, more than a year. Umm, we’re having a little dilemma.
Yes, we remember when we got engaged, February 24th 2009. Except, last year February 24th was also “Pancake Day.” Hence the dilemma. Is our anniversary on the fixed date of the 24th, or does it change from year to year, like Pancake Day.
Believe it or not, the type-A Candice thinks that the exact date should be the proper engage-a-versary; however, the free-spirited Tom is an advocate for letting the day be determined by the dates of Easter.
Luckily, neither think they should actually do anything to celebrate other than acknowledge it’s existence!
Oh wait, perhaps it should be a season. We could celebrate any discrepancy in days between the two dates. I’m up for that.
In any case, I’ve been enjoying this past “reading week” and have actually completed a draft of my Major Research Paper that should only have minor revisions from my supervisor before I am done! Too bad I then had to spend the rest of the week dealing with a rather excruciating repetitive strain injury in my neck.
It took me three days to write this post so it didn’t sound like a section of my thesis.
Posted by Candice on February 14, 2010 at 11:15 am
So my life has not been very blog-worthy lately.
Wake up, go to ballet, come home, work out, do school work, get frustrated with school work, sleep, repeat.
But, yesterday, something exciting happened! I got to meet my dance scholar idol. Okay, so it sounds kind of lame after all that build up; but it was really important to me. In fact, my major research project is based to a great degree on her work. When I read things that this woman has written I think to myself, “How is it that this person is able to read my mind and write exactly what I am thinking?” Unlike many others, we see ballet as potentially empowering.
Anyway, the point is, that yesterday the dance department hosted a lecture panel on masculinity and dance across cultures, which is why she was there to present. While I often feel a lot of pressure as a dance scholar to look at forms beyond ballet and even beyond western theatre dance, I was happy that Jennifer was there yesterday to validate ballet as worthy of attention. And to inspire me to keep doing the work I do.
These past few weeks I have been absolutely consumed with finishing my final research project. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what I really want to say and feeling a little unsure about my argument that changing the way society thinks about transcending gender could begin in the dance studio. However, at the end of her presentation, Jennifer said exactly what I needed to hear to validate my life project! She asked, “What kind of world to you want to live in and how can dance contribute to making this?” I think I’m going to get it put on a bumper sticker!
There’s something very special about finding people who inspire you to do better in some aspect of your life, not by preaching, but just by modeling practices. I’m pretty lucky because it seems like I can learn something from everyone I know and it was certainly nice to be reminded of this yesterday.
Oh hi there.
Posted by Tom on January 15, 2010 at 4:58 pm
Didn’t see you there.
We haven’t dropped off the face of the map. Maybe just the face of the internet.
I guess we got caught up in Christmas, spending time with family and friends and eating and sleeping (all of which was awesome) and forgot to post. And then when we got back to Toronto to we were super busy, and then we were and the point where it had been so long since we’d last posted that we had to post some amazing to make up for the lack of posts since Candice’s Christmas Tree Disaster. So I’m posting this kinda-okay post just to get it over with! Yay!
I’ve been enjoying my classes so far this semester, and it seems like I might actually enjoy them this semester (I had a really bad professor last semester). I also only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so that gives me lots of time to be doing lots of other things like working and volunteering with a bunch of different groups on campus. I’ll post when anything interesting happens.
I was going to mention that it’s freezing here (again), but it’s actually started to warm up here a bit over the past day or two. Candice and I went out for the afternoon last Saturday and were turned into icicles by the time we got home. However the temperature’s been on an upward swing and that’s made things much more bearable, and I don’t worry that Candice is going to freeze to death walking to school. Today things have actually been thawing. It’s probably not a good idea to assume this will continue for the rest of the “winter”, but it’s an appreciated change. (Thanks nature.)
This evening Candice is going to a party thrown by one of her professors and I’m going to a rock show hosted by a band from St. John’s. I’m hoping it’ll be packed with Newfoundlanders.
The cilftmas tree struggle continues
Posted by Candice on December 22, 2009 at 9:23 am
Sorry that I didn’t post yesterday. I was too busy fixing our tree. Because it grew on the side of a cliff it has scoliosis and crashed to the ground after all the ornaments were on it. Luckily, after much craziness including changing the stand without taking the tree down, all is well. And I think we have the best tree ever. There is a little picture on Tom’s flickr, but I’m sure he’ll post another one later.
Luckily, I wasn’t home when the family decorated the tree, so none of my (zillion) ballerina ornaments were on the tree. They all survived. Well, until I dropped one of them last night and her head fell off.
Melted Salad
Posted by Candice on December 19, 2009 at 10:39 pm
There are only six days until Christmas. This should be a lovely post about a wonderful Christmas memory or a favourite Christmas recipe. Except, truth is, I have whatever Tom has. Sore throat, headache, and I’ve slept more in this past week than I have in the past semester. So this is a bit of a lame post, it’s just a recipe.
I’m really not a fan of anything cold. I’m that annoying girl who says “no ice” at restaurants. This makes winter a little tricky; however I compensate by eating very warm things all winter long. Apparently though, you are supposed to eat salad all year round because the vegetables are good for you. So, to get around the cold-ness of a salad, here is my recipe for Melted Salad - I invented it on the bus the other day after griping for a while about eating salad in winter.
Cut up an onion and some garlic.
Cut up some celery (really tiny because celery strings are gross)
Cut up a few carrots
Cut up a turnip (or rutebaga if you’re from Toronto)
Cut up some spinach (salad = need for some leafy greens)
Cut up anything else you like in your salad (except berries)
Put your favorite salad dressing in a big pot (Greek is good. So is oil and balsamic vinegar). Add tons of salt and pepper. Throw in all the vegetables. Cover the works with water, turn on burner. You’ll know it’s done when everything has melted.
This is the kind of salad you’ll want to serve in a bowl, not on a plate.
Home and Food and Sleep and
Posted by Tom on December 19, 2009 at 5:07 pm
I made it home to the island with only a scratchy throat and stuffy nose to show for it (Katelyn says I have the hi-ni). I’ve spent the last couple of days visiting friends, taking dance classes, eating Katheryn’s Christmas cookies, sleeping, shopping, discussing university politics with my friends at the student’s union at Grenfell College, drinking tea and laughing at talking sheep and rabbits and orangutans, helping my dad move a snowblower (our family finally caved and purchased a snowblower and are super happy about it), and trying to kick this sickness in the stomach with steel toe boots (that’s right, I went there).
Even though feeling like this sucks, I’m glad that I have it now, instead of in a week from now. That would be unfortunate.