Lessons

Things learned this weekend:

Rexall beers, while sort of expensive, are much more potent than regular beers. One is a good time. Two are a great time.

Aforementioned beers, in conjunction with lacrosse (which I had never before watched) are awesome. Seriously. I never expected something so violent. Apparently I love any sport where people fight. Lacrosse fights are so much more extreme than hockey fights. It's like a street fight. But with a big stick.

I am awesome at Guitar Hero. Which makes me wish I had actually taken up guitar when I was young and impressionable.

Even people who you think have it so together are worried about whether they're doing the right thing (as a career in particular). I've encountered this a lot lately. The sort-of-quarter-life-crises where people wonder if what they're doing now is really what they want to be doing. Or if where they are living is really where they want to end up.

Writing about the snow makes it disappear! Woo! Yesterday was beautiful. We went to Marble Slab. I am not so much into the mixin's as the ice cream itself. Birthday cake ice cream = takes like promises and rainbows.

Some people don't know that you shouldn't microwave styrofoam *ahem*... I mean extruded polystyrene. And yet, that poutine was still delicious. I may or may not get cancer from it. Good to know that if I go down, Kristy does too.

Spring in Alberta

One day (my first day back from Cuba, when I slept all day, naturally) it was 24 degrees. Later the week, it's a freak snowstorm with intense wind and -12. Snowed for four days straight. Beginning of soccer cancelled. Flip flops thrown back into the closet, snow boots pulled out. Joy.



This is the true north strong and free, and cold and wet, and icy and dark. Sometimes all at once. It's why God invented long johns. This is Canada. We have winter. Life sucks. Get a touque and embrace it. -- Rick Mercer

Best advice ever

Don't save MSN conversations. Private conversations. Whatever.

People find it and you never mean completely what you say. You get angry at a significant other/are peeved at a pal and you vent about it. It's healthy. Other people confide their secrets in you. You have a couple drinks and flirt with an ex.

All okay things. But nothing you want your current thing to read and get all whiny over.

[disclaimer: this is not a current issue in my life, but in the lives of friends]

It's not because of abortion. It's because of safety.

This is a pretty contentious issue.

The Globe and Mail has an article about how pro-choice groups are saying it's a "blasphemy" that Dr. Henry Morgentaler hasn't been inducted into the Order of Canada.

I was so proud of Western, my alma mater, when they gave Dr. Morgentaler an honorary degree the year I graduated. There was so much controversy. So many protests. Disgust.

In my mind, it's not entirely about abortion. It's about the personal struggles that this man went through for what he believed in.

Henry Morgentaler is a holocaust survivor. He lost family members in Auschwitz and he survived. After being given a United Nations scholarship that was offered to Jewish survivors, he had to live with a German family that was forced to house him in order to attend medical school.

In 1950, he moved to Canada and worked as a general practitioner for nearly 20 years before his convictions about abortion caused serious conflict with others. He gave up his practice in order to openly perform illegal abortions in 1969. While I don't condone illegal activity, it's a pretty big deal to give up your livelihood for something you believe in so strongly. Fighting the courts, lobbying on behalf of Canadian women to prevent unnecessary deaths from botched abortions of scared women.

He has received numerous death threats, his clinics have been bombed, and yet he still kept ensuring that women who had already chosen to abort, were given a safe option. I think the big thing to remember is that women who want abortions will get them. No matter whether it's a safe or legal option. And a medical environment in a clinic is a far better alternative to back alleys and basements.

I think that Dr. Morgentaler, though not everyone agrees with his own personal beliefs, deserves to be honored as someone who overcame great adversity and struggled in order to make the country a safer place for women. We are taught at a young age to stand up for our beliefs and to fight for what we believe is right. It seems silly that we're told that it's "wrong" when others don't believe in the same things as someone who spent their life going against the status quo.

In my opinion, the Order of Canada holds many members who do not mean nearly as much to Canada, and what Canadians believe in (not so much whether abortion is right or wrong, but freedom, standing up for your beliefs, being given the opportunity to make your own decisions), as Dr. Henry Morgentaler.

Vote in the Globe and Mail poll.

Some people never grow up...

"New Democrat Leader Brian Mason talks about how he is using Facebook to get out his message. Mason says he has about 700 friends and Liberal Leader Kevin Taft has about 600. One comment “what is this, highschool?” was made in response to Mason’s remarks." CBC Radio Calgary

I love it. "I have more friends than he has!"