I’ve been shortlisted at the Canadian Weblog Awards!

 hellomelissa.net, web, writing  2 Responses »
Jan 152012
 

2011 Canadian Weblog AwardsIt’s a good thing I did some sprucing up around here last week.

I found out this morning that I made the shortlist for the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Canadian Weblog Awards! Lifetime Achievement means “for weblogs created before January 1, 2005″. (Clearly the weblog is still a relatively new medium for communication.) I submitted hellomelissa.net on a lark just before the nomination period closed. I wasn’t sure if submitting myself for nomination was proper etiquette. I figured the worst that could happen was a polite note from Schmutzie telling me that sites need to be nominated by other people and I should try again next year. No harm no foul.

I also wasn’t sure if hellomelissa.net was good enough for submission. I also submitted to Best-Written and Best Life Weblog. I knew that all of these categories would be full of lots of writers I read and admire. And they totally are.

See what happens when you take a little risk and put yourself out there? Remind me to do that more often.

Best of luck to everyone who has been shortlisted with me in the Lifetime Achievement category: Cheaty Monkey, Coin-Operated Boy, Urban Daddy and Weighty Matters. There are some great sites – and people – here. Good luck to all the other nominees too.

Make sure to check out the first-round nomination list too – there are so many great blogs to discover here.

Thanks again to Schmutzie and to everyone that has volunteered to jury these awards. That’s a huge pile of work.

My word for 2012

 life, thinking  8 Responses »
Jan 082012
 

Happy… Old Year?

I’m a little behind. Forgive me, I’ve been busy.

Like so many other bloggers, I’ve chosen a word for 2012. I have a feeling 2012 is going to be a big year, and not just because there are theories that the world is going to end come December. (Personally I don’t buy it, but lots of people do so I have to acknowledge it.)

The word I’ve chosen for 2012 is:

create

  • I want to create  great content for hellomelissa.net
  • I want to create more in general
  • I want to create a happy, settled, comfortable home for me and my family
  • I want to create the life I want for myself, which will benefit my family

It’s a short list, but they’re pretty lofty ambitions. Wish me luck.

 

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This is terrible: TTC Bus Shelter Graffiti, January 4, 2012

 irritants, thinking, toronto  2 Responses »
Jan 042012
 

Via Flickr:

I snapped this picture this morning on my way to Warden subway station. In case you can’t read it, the graffiti says “All TTC Workers Suck Ass”.

(For folks who don’t live in Toronto, the TTC is the Toronto Transit Commission. They operate our public transit system.)

This makes me angry for lots of reasons but here are two:

1) All TTC workers *do not* suck ass. Most TTC workers I’ve dealt with are good folks. You get what you give so the Golden Rule is a good rule to live by.

2) It’s demoralizing for both TTC employees and riders. When people are demoralized, they don’t do their best work. This applies to TTC riders just as much as TTC employees.

I hope this gets cleaned up soon.

I snapped this picture this morning on my way to Warden subway station. In case you can’t read it, the graffiti says “All TTC Workers Suck Ass”.

(For folks who don’t live in Toronto, the TTC is the Toronto Transit Commission. They operate our public transit system.)

This makes me angry for lots of reasons but here are two:

1) All TTC workers *do not* suck ass. Most TTC workers I’ve dealt with are good folks. You get what you give so the Golden Rule is a good rule to live by.

2) It’s demoralizing for both TTC employees and riders. When people are demoralized, they don’t do their best work. This applies to TTC riders just as much as TTC employees.

I hope this gets cleaned up soon.

Update: On my way to work this morning (January 5th), I saw that this graffiti was gone. The window looked to be badly scratched up due to the cleaner, which is an unfortunate, but understandable side effect. I hope that doesn’t block people’s view of the buses too much, especially when the weather gets worse.

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Timeout

 family, flora, life, motherhood, parenthood  2 Responses »
Dec 272011
 

I’ve been off work since the Tuesday before Christmas. I’ve been grateful for the time off, but at times the change in our routines has made me less than pleasant to the family. At one point, my frustrations boiled over and I put myself in timeout. I had been yelling a little too much about stuff that wasn’t a big deal. I told Sean and Flora I needed to be by myself for a bit and I went up to my room to calm down so I could interact with the family like a normal person.

The following set of tweets explain what happened after that.

I am so lucky to have such a caring little girl. She was so gentle and really emphasized her need to check on me. My timeout, while needed, was shorter than I expected it to be, thanks to her. I told Flora how thankful I was that she checked on me to see that I was okay. Lots of hugs were exchanged and we enjoyed the rest of our evening together as a family.

Like all parents, I’m struggling to do the best I can to raise Flora right. I could tell you about a million mistakes I’ve made already. Watching her care about others at such a young age makes me think Sean and I are doing something right.

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Overwhelmed

 adventures, family, irritants, life  7 Responses »
Nov 192011
 

Sean went out last night. After I put Flora to bed, I had the evening to myself. There were a million things I could have done. Should have done. Instead I sat in my chair, had my dinner, watched TV, and played around online. A typical evening, productivity be damned.

I feel like I’m barely holding on to my life. Most nights after Flora goes to bed, I just want to sit and relax. Those few hours after her bedtime and before mine are the only hours I have complete control over my time. The only time in my day where no one wants anything significant from me.

My house looks like a bomb went off most of the time. Since we’re considering selling it in the next few months, I feel worse about the state of my home than I usually do. Sean has started decluttering his stuff (something he’s needed to do for years) and has begun organizing some general repairs we’ve been putting off. I’ve packed my books for storage in my mum’s basement but I’m having a hard time keeping up momentum to work through my decluttering.

There’s just so much to do. Going through our life’s accumulations to decide what comes with us and what gets passed on. Getting rid of enough stuff to make a trip to my local second-time-around shop worth the effort of packing it. I joke sometimes that I should just set the house on fire (with everyone out of it and safe of course). I know that is a horrible, irresponsible, hateful idea, but sometimes disaster feels better than actually doing the work.

Sean is the catalyst of this project. I am grateful that he doesn’t go into overwhelm like I do, but his methods are making me crazy. He has several half-finished decluttering jobs in progress throughout the house. I can’t work like that. I need to make a list, prioritize it and check the tasks off as I complete them one by one. The problem is I feel too overwhelmed to even make that list. My mental list is somewhat formulated, but I need to commit it to paper (or screen) so I can get the satisfaction of checking those tasks off when they are done.

My mum (bless her) has offered to come up and help us. It embarrasses me that I need that help. I know if I did a little bit each night, I’d make progress. I’m just so depleted by 8pm that I need to just decompress for a bit. Then when I’m finally relaxed, I don’t want to get up and start working again. I want to keep relaxing.

I need to figure something out because stuff needs to get done. What do you do?

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