National Holidays: 17 Oct 2005
Bonjour!
Rachel and I returned from Alaska only to discover a really stressed out, frazzle haired woman standing in the living room. Needless to say, that was a bit of a shock. It was even more disheartening to realize that stressed out, frazzle haired woman was me.
The two of us traveled to Alaska for ten days over Canada's Thanksgiving break and Rachel's birthday. It's nice to discover that Rachel's birthday, Columbus Day (in Mexico known as the Day of the Race), Canada's Thanksgiving, Yom Kippur, and Cuba's Yara Yell all happen around the same time. Nice especially to know this because Canada gives everyone a nice holiday from school and work on Cuba's Yara Yell. Okay, okay, Canada gives everyone a nice holiday on Canada's Thanksgiving, which just happens to be the same day this year as Cuba's Yara Yell.
For those of you wondering what the heck "Yara Yell" is, it's a celebration of the day in 1868 Carlos Manuel de Cespedes urged Cubans to fight against colonial power of Spain for Cuban independence. It's called "Yara Yell" or "Grito de Yara" because the revolution began on the town of Yara. The revolution led to the U.S. intervening, a republic being formed four years later, and boy doesn't that U.S. intervention on an outside state sound familiar?
The U.S. did not intervene in Alaska however, it merely purchased it, from Russia, so we don't have a special holiday like "Aleut Holler", though I'm thinking of starting one. And being Aleut myself, I think I'm especially qualified.
About half way through our trip to the further North, Rachel turned six. One of my best friends and I have mutually agreed not to acknowledge Rachel's new age because of how it forces us to also acknowledge the amount of time that has gone by in those six years.
Leaving Montreal to travel back to Alaska, and then leaving Alaska to return to Montreal forced me to recognize a good number of things. Only one of those things is how much work I have to do here in school.
A close friend reminded me though that at least 2/3 of the point of all this is to have fun and if someone tries to trick me into being serious I have to remind them that at this point at least, academia plus my life don't equal changing the world. And thank god for that. As a result, I've returned quickly to beer and cigarettes and a celebration of my being atheist. For those of you worried about my soul, don't worry, Rachel still adheres strongly to the notion of God and the two of us agree on religious ideals like chocolate being a good thing, and wine not being bad to drink.
Besides taking up occasionally abused substances (not that I can claim atheism qualifies as a "substance"), I've also agreed to go about graduate school in general, and philosophy in particular with an eye for fun. As Rachel already knows, fun is not a constant state, so I have to be willing to find it where I can. But I also have to be willing to make it. And that I am. Though I know many of you can't think of writing 3 20-page papers as having a good time, my belief is that they can be.
For those of you also wanting to take up a commitment to fun, but having forgotten to celebrate Yara Yell this past week, we have another holiday coming up. National Bosses Day is this Sunday, October 16. Unless you work on Sunday, you have a lot to celebrate. Your boss should be no where in your life on that particular holiday and who wouldn't want to celebrate that? And in other news, Monday is the full moon.
The frazzle haired woman has taken to sitting down again, and eating pastry, and keeping in touch with friends, all great ways to make the stress go away.
Keep in touch.
We love you!
Elaine
Rachel and I returned from Alaska only to discover a really stressed out, frazzle haired woman standing in the living room. Needless to say, that was a bit of a shock. It was even more disheartening to realize that stressed out, frazzle haired woman was me.
The two of us traveled to Alaska for ten days over Canada's Thanksgiving break and Rachel's birthday. It's nice to discover that Rachel's birthday, Columbus Day (in Mexico known as the Day of the Race), Canada's Thanksgiving, Yom Kippur, and Cuba's Yara Yell all happen around the same time. Nice especially to know this because Canada gives everyone a nice holiday from school and work on Cuba's Yara Yell. Okay, okay, Canada gives everyone a nice holiday on Canada's Thanksgiving, which just happens to be the same day this year as Cuba's Yara Yell.
For those of you wondering what the heck "Yara Yell" is, it's a celebration of the day in 1868 Carlos Manuel de Cespedes urged Cubans to fight against colonial power of Spain for Cuban independence. It's called "Yara Yell" or "Grito de Yara" because the revolution began on the town of Yara. The revolution led to the U.S. intervening, a republic being formed four years later, and boy doesn't that U.S. intervention on an outside state sound familiar?
The U.S. did not intervene in Alaska however, it merely purchased it, from Russia, so we don't have a special holiday like "Aleut Holler", though I'm thinking of starting one. And being Aleut myself, I think I'm especially qualified.
About half way through our trip to the further North, Rachel turned six. One of my best friends and I have mutually agreed not to acknowledge Rachel's new age because of how it forces us to also acknowledge the amount of time that has gone by in those six years.
Leaving Montreal to travel back to Alaska, and then leaving Alaska to return to Montreal forced me to recognize a good number of things. Only one of those things is how much work I have to do here in school.
A close friend reminded me though that at least 2/3 of the point of all this is to have fun and if someone tries to trick me into being serious I have to remind them that at this point at least, academia plus my life don't equal changing the world. And thank god for that. As a result, I've returned quickly to beer and cigarettes and a celebration of my being atheist. For those of you worried about my soul, don't worry, Rachel still adheres strongly to the notion of God and the two of us agree on religious ideals like chocolate being a good thing, and wine not being bad to drink.
Besides taking up occasionally abused substances (not that I can claim atheism qualifies as a "substance"), I've also agreed to go about graduate school in general, and philosophy in particular with an eye for fun. As Rachel already knows, fun is not a constant state, so I have to be willing to find it where I can. But I also have to be willing to make it. And that I am. Though I know many of you can't think of writing 3 20-page papers as having a good time, my belief is that they can be.
For those of you also wanting to take up a commitment to fun, but having forgotten to celebrate Yara Yell this past week, we have another holiday coming up. National Bosses Day is this Sunday, October 16. Unless you work on Sunday, you have a lot to celebrate. Your boss should be no where in your life on that particular holiday and who wouldn't want to celebrate that? And in other news, Monday is the full moon.
The frazzle haired woman has taken to sitting down again, and eating pastry, and keeping in touch with friends, all great ways to make the stress go away.
Keep in touch.
We love you!
Elaine
posted by hawkbrwn at 8:33 p.m.
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