Get your own
 diary at DiaryLand.com! contact me older entries newest entry

22:34 - 02.12.07
acculturation
It has been very busy and very cold the past few days. I think I heard the weather person say "and with the wind chill, it feels like -31 C." I know that one of the weather billboards on the train route I travelled this weekend flashed -6 F. That was during the warmest part of the afternoon, without the wind chill factor. By Saturday I was beginning to think the end of the world had been announced. Not the cold, that's just normal. Between when I last posted and now I have had visits to my home from four of my sons while the others have all touched base, not only just once either. Add in email and in person contacts from people I haven't seen in a long time and I was just beginning to wonder, you see.

One son had offered to pick up some furniture that one of my co-worker's sons had wanted to giveaway, since he was moving down east. Frieght costs being what they are, it is actually less expensive to buy new goods once one has arrived where their new home is located. Her son hasn't yet found a permanent place - bunking with a friend - so that makes hauling furniture cross-country even less feasible given that storage fees are really high too. My son has been working out of town for several days, so it wasn't until today that he could find the time to nip over to my friend's home after work to follow through on his promise. I'm really glad my friend was willing to be available at such short notice and that she was willing to hold onto the stuff for me given that she is in the midst of major home renovations too. She is also dealing with significant wrongly delivered product, as well as labour errors. Her patience amazes me. She said she finds it hard having every part of her home taken over by so many strangers. Overwhelming, but how else can the work get done. Glad she has a good sense of humour about it. I now have a really good quality microwave table that exactly matches the colour and styling of the pantries I bought for my kitchen renovation two years ago - if it ever happens that is. Four new kitchen chairs and a table rounded out the benison. I am so lucky to have such generous friends.

On Saturday I went to a new mall in the far northwest of the city to do a piecework assignment. Not only was it frigidly cold - especially with the wind - but the transit service was dreadful. The travel time alone was over 3 1/2 hours. Ran into some really rude salespeople, which is quite unusual. I expect the closer Christmas comes the more likely such incidents will be. Given that these two young ladies made shoppers feel that they weren't welcome to even be in the same rarefied air as themselves I suspect they will lose quite a bit of business for their employer. They actually refused to help a couple of other shoppers who requested assistance. Not good.

On the way home one of those cross-cultural incidents as well. One woman of East Asian descent, apparently fairly new to the country, boarded my train car with one of her younger female relatives. The language spoken between them is quite familiar and I realized that the newcomer was making fun of my clothes. Specifically the full-length plain denim skirt I was wearing. What I wear has to be deemed local fashion, because I have always lived here. No other outside influence can be blamed for my "faux pas". She looked a bit shocked a few stations down the line when she saw two other women wearing very similar combinations of clothing. I think she was already a bit rattled anyway, as was her relative, because they realized that I understood their conversation to begin with. The vision of several women commiting the same fashion - to her - offense was just a bit too much to bear.

I spent the balance of the time on that train after that incident reconsidering my reaction to a young couple who had travelled part of my journey to the mall on the same bench in the train. Obviously university students living in residence; that down at the heels look accompanied by an attitude of not being bothered by it one bit - an adventure. The young woman was decked out in a calf-length brown corduroy skirt that was cut in the fashion of the dresses one sees in very old western movies. Slit high up the thigh on one side with lots of frills and buckskin sewn on along the length of the slit as well as around the hem. Matching styling for the upper garment - umm, jacket/shirt?? I wondered if she might have been in some sort of creative arts program studying clothing. "You aren't from around here, are you" was my unspoken reaction. She and her young beau were intertwined so closely that I doubt she noticed the blistering cold at all despite being seriously under-dressed for the weather - or maybe that was why they were snuggling. Another young woman and her beau also standing nearby. They looked like they might have just come from either a wedding or another formal ceremony of some description. He - smart looking suit, shiny black shoes. She - basic knee-length black dress, cut in an unusual pattern and tight to the body. Not all that odd on a young lady, but the fur piece was definitely out of the ordinary. It was one of those real fox fur mixed with mink boas that were worn lastly in the roaring '20s and the early part of the 1930's. I wondered if she had found it in a treasure hunt through her grandparents' or great-grandparents' belongings. Interesting at any rate. I had just enough self control to not ask her to relate the scarf's history to me. Tempted though.

My one son - number five son - who visited went on a treasure hunt when he visited my home too. Because I have managed to clear out several layers of posessions while sorting through closets, it has revealed whole layers of things I had forgotten were there. I found a package of photos that were of his Dad when he was a child. I gave those to him to pass on since they see each other on a regular basis. My son noticed all the record albums I had stacked on one shelf in the coat closet and asked if some of those were his Dad's too. Would he like to take those along as well? Bonus. I want to convert that closet over into a reading nook and was wondering where I would find space to store them anyway. About half the collection was mine and half was his Dad's. I had the Beatles albums for example, he had the Rolling Stones; should have been a sign right there, right? Anyway that solved half that particular storage problem and I had a nice trip down memory lane, dragging my son with me as we sorted through the album cover art, as I contemplated my lost and found favourite music from "before babies".

Got an out-of-the-blue email from one of the women I worked and travelled with on transit three downtown assignments ago. I had been thinking about her and wondering how she was keeping, but remember my hard drive melted down about two years ago and one of the things I lost was some of my email addresses. It would be great to get together with her again, so I responded by asking for a tea date. When my oldest son came by for an over-night visit after his work on Saturday (it was too cold and late at night to travel back to his home by transit) we were also able to confirm the date when the new train station closer to here will open. December 17. He still takes transit everywhere so he was really pleased to get that news. When he left to meet his boss today, my youngest and I headed off to the grocery store. After feeling like I was freezing much of my trip to do the piecework on Saturday despite wearing several layers of warm clothes, I had dug out some new-to-me clothes that the one friend had given me during the summer. As I thought, there were some really warm woolen sweaters and a lined pair of camping-out-in-the-wilderness pants that I decided to try out for winter hardiness on a relatively short trip from home. Both new-to-me garments passed the test with flying colours; both because of their wind resistance, you see. Met my second-in-command from the election work there. That was odd, because she always shops at one of the competing grocery stores. Loyalty points and cash rebates involved, you see. It was her son that was shot to death about 10 months ago. She still seemed very strained, as to be expected. She just seemed to want to have a normal "getting caught up" type of conversation. My youngest wasn't all that comfortable with some of the personal questions nor was I - I don't like being asked about my finances when I'm struggling to pay my basic bills - but I know it wasn't meant to be invasive. Just fending off the types of intrusive questions she probably has to deal with way too often. She told me about some of the staff that worked for us the last election who she has encountered since, as well. Her hubby is throwing his hat into the political ring. He had been contemplating it during the last election, you see. I thought the death of their son might change his mind, but maybe he sees it as a way of not having to think too much about that part of his life. Truth is, that type of trauma follows one wherever one tries to hide and it is likely to become a public issue if he runs for office. I think my assistant may find that the intrusion into her privacy might become considerably more than she realized was possible. We'll see.

Anyway time to go read to the cats. They seem to enjoy tales of Wales even though they don't speak the language. Probably I don't either, but I do try to pronounce all the multiple-consonant-with-no-vowels-for-relief words as best I can. Keeps me humble knowing I can only speak (poorly)a few of a few thousand languages spoken on earth. Good night dear diary.

previous - next

about me - read my profile! read other Diar
yLand diaries! recommend my diary to a friend! Get
 your own fun + free diary at DiaryLand.com!

web stats