Easter: My Life is Now Complete

For I have discovered...drumroll please...

Chocolate-covered PEEPS!!

Yes, this is truly the pinnacle of all Easter candy, perhaps eclipsing even the wonderful Cadbury Creme Egg and Mini-eggs in greatness and glory. Sadly only available in the US at the moment, I have tendrils out hoping to latch onto a package of sweet, sweet chocolate peep. (Friend going to Fairbanks. we can only hope)

And in other PEEP news, I bought a box of bunny-shaped pink peeps and a box of traditional yellow chick peeps. The bunny ones are smaller but just as delicious, but if you are a super-taster you might want to avoid them due to Red food colouring #40, it tastes bitter to those people. Friend noticed that right away, I didn't. Guess I'm a normal taster, all I could taste was marshmallowy goodness. Tragically, I forgot the box at work and they went stale over the weekend, yuck. I threw them out on Monday.

Chick peeps? As delightful as ever! Not stale here. Both packages were purchased for $1.04 at Extra Foods, and note--they are the cheapest at Wal-Mart ($1.00) second place for Extra Foods and most expensive at Shoppers Drug Mart, which surprised me at a whopping ($1.50).

Contentiousness!

Yes, that's right, feeling contentious this morning. Damn you, Globe & Mail!

I'm examining a debate that looks at providing public healthcare funds for in-vitro fertilization techniques, for women who are unable to concieve due to advanced age, infertility issues, etc.

I'm against it. That seems to be a popular and simultaneously unpopular statement. I am against it not for women-bashing reasons, although alarmingly that is a sentiment echoed in the comments section. I am against it because I do not feel that having a child is a 'right' and that having 'your own' child is a selfish, sad commentary on the state of today. What happened to adoption, if you feel the burning need to have a family? That is the most unselfish act, rather than spending thousands and thousands and facing extreme sadness and disappointment (the failure rate of in-vitro is high, there's no sugarcoating that). People are hard-pressed for 'their' and 'mine' and 'my' instead of sharing a life with someone who might appreciate it.

I do not like children and will not have my own, but I understand the desire and 'ticking time-bomb' of biological clocks. (well, vaguely). But is it really necessary to feed into the narcissistic drive of 'my own'? To reproduce yourself is not the most unselfish act you could perpetuate, it is one of the most selfish, but that's ok, because you are raising a member of society. I'm fine with productive members of society, but at what lengths do we go to ensure they are your own? Too many great lengths.

Off Susan's soap-box, with one more comment: The answer to reproductive and fertility issues isn't to go back to middle-ages type living or caveman viewpoints. It is to improve the status of women in today's society even further, so that they may *gasp* raise children and have a financially productive career and fulfilling life. Oh, commence pearl-clutching!

Paris Nights & New York Mornings

So I went to my big Olympic day and am back again at my humdrum existence. It was pretty awesome, getting a glimpse of glamour! It started with the charter flight, which was called 2010 in honour of the Olympics--and we got a fab breakfast and two drink services. About a thousand times more than I can say about shitty Air Canada, that's for sure (breakfast was yogurt, grapes, strawberries, brie, cheddar, huge fruit muffin and a petite orange?!!!! yumm)

I also got a sweet scarf that has slits in it for my poor cold hands. Yay! We landed and were herded to the new skytrain that goes directly downtown, and from there, checked out Canada's Northern House. It was really hopping, and we got VIP front of the line treatment, no waiting for 1-3 hrs for us, sweet! It was interesting, kind of like a museum of Northern artifacts. We watched various Yukon dignitaries speak, then Sasquatch Prom Date, local rockabilly band, performed. It was pretty cool. Lunch came in a bag and was surprisingly good, sandwich, bag of veggies, drink & cookie. We left to go check out some artists and hit up more interviews. My friend is working at CNH and we got to hang out for a bit, and that was nice.

We looked at the Inuit Gallery, swanky, then the Aboriginal Pavilion, which was super busy. And the weather the whole time? GORGEOUS. Hot, sunny and beautiful. I felt very nostalgic about Vancouver, and a bit sad. Why did I leave?

Then we had lunch #2, other members in my group decided they were no longer there to work and went to the bar instead. I went to see the Olympic Cauldron, and yes, it was quite magnificent, looks like massive quartz rising into the sky on fire. The crowds were insane.

Then I met up with bar-goers from the morning and had a drink and dinner, before we left for the medals ceremony at BC place. It was Yukon day, so there was a Yukon performance featuring live singers, dancers and sled dogs. It was funny, since the sled dogs were like WTF and didn't want to pull a sled across the stage. They got kind of picked up and pulled across. Silly pups!

Stereophonics came on and my feet were killing me by this point. I enjoyed them but the others in my group decided it would be more fun to stand in line for a few hours at another bar, instead of staying for the show. I was a little annoyed--we come ALL this way and all you want to do is hang out at a bar? Jeeze, wankers.

Trip home at midnight, dinner at 1am and it was as great as breakfast. Procuitto, strawberries, swiss cheese, capicolo salami, 3 olives, grapes, wine...ahhh...

And so ends my Olympic adventure. Except that I had to write 4 stories the next day, exausted as hell. Haha. Worth it!

Ooooolympics!!

It's the big event happening now! I am not actually watching much, if any, as I do not have cable TV and am far too cheap to bother with it now anyways. I have a soft spot for watching the Olympics though, and I think Super-G racing, aerials and slalom would be pretty awesome. Not as awesome as the Summer Olympics, as, let's face it, not *all* countries can even enter Winter Olympics. Definitely not as inclusive, economically speaking.

Some concerning things have been going on, particularly in the realm of practicality. Case in point: cancelling a major snowboarding event (for spectators only) because it was raining and the slush/hay heaps they brought in to substitute for snow just didn't seem to cut it, and volunteers were sinking up to their kneecaps. Winter Olympics in Vancouver, in springtime? Really? Really? I am all for it, as I am attending myself, but c'mon, February is tulip time, not ski race season there.

Also, there have been 6 crashes in luge, one ended in an airlift out and another in a death. Hmmm... That is concerning as well. We want to display our athletes, not knock them out of the running by dangerous practice sessions.

I hope the kinks and troubles get worked out and Canada hosts a fabulous show for all. I am looking forward to heading out there myself!

When Things Start Splitting at the Seams...

Bit of a whine post coming up, sorry!

Sometimes it feels like the world's your oyster, you can devour it in one bite and be ever stronger for it. Nothing is crumbling down around you, everything rocks.

Sadly, this feeling is extremely fleeting and this is something I am struggling with at the moment. I'm that person with the oyster in my palm. Things are going smashingly career-wise, I'm clawing my way to top (well, middle) of where I want my career to go. I am flying out on a press junket to watch Yukon day at the Olympics, and this is only for my journalism fly-by-night freelancing. Oh, things are golden, just golden.

And then...Jaws musics lurks...

I find out a relative of mine has cancer, and that this sort of cancer is starting to look suspiciously like it runs in the family, seriously affecting female family members.

THEN

Family blowout, I'm not one to air dirty laundry online except if it pertains to my favourite assholes, like Lister, CKRW or old horrible job, but it's getting very dramatic, and I do not want to be involved. I am a helpful ear, not therapy. Particularly when it's your parents who are putting you in the uncomfortable and extremely unenviable middle of things. I love them both, and that's why it's so difficult. Distance also adds a troubling dimension.

Things are increasingly complicated, but I can't complain. I can deal.

Kebabery=Great!

Yes, a new restaurant has graced the downtown core of Whitehorse. Named 'The Kebabery,' an infusion of mediterranean and middle-eastern cuisine, you can smell it's deliciousness wafting down the sidewalk.

Silly name aside (I kept wanting to shout out Kebabery!!) the food was cheap by ridiculous Whitehorse standards and really, really good. It is takeout-style, you go an order, they call your name and you either take it and run or sit down. Very popular at lunchtime and seating is limited.

What to order: I had the beef shwarma platter, which is $11.50. It comes with salad (your choice of a few, I had Greek), tzatziki or hummous, pita, jasmine rice. It was fabulous. My meal came to about $12.00 with a Diet Coke. A coworker had the lamb, and enjoyed it equally. They have baklava for $4.00, and various kebab and shwarma platters--none are *very* expensive.

Go, you won't regret it!

*caveat* I had a strange allergic reaction after lunch, the corners of my mouth started itching like crazy and burning, and my throat got clogged up and raspy. It was very weird. Maybe food related, but it sure tasted good/