Warm weather dreaming as winter sets in reminded me that last year, I spent five days in Cuba on a quick all-inclusive vacation during Son #2′s week off university. Juggling paying work and my own school work, I didn’t have a lot of spare time but figured it could work. Between booking the trip and [...]
Tag Archives: Life is short
Break the bars and say ‘si’ to life
Posted in The Red Jacket Diaries blog Also tagged Dispatches from the dorm, The independent life 2 Comments
#NoMoreBullies
Several different sources have pointed me to comedian Rick Mercer‘s powerful rant this week about bullying, which was inspired by the recent suicide of 15-year-old Jamie Hubley. As a mother, I can only begin to imagine the heartbreak Jamie’s family is going through. And while I can’t understand the depth of despair that would make [...]
Steve Jobs touched my life; yours too?
In an early job, I worked in a sea of PCs, but got special dispensation to get a Mac because I worked in the Communications department. The IT guy seemed as excited about it as I was. A Mac IIsi (shown here) helped me launch Get It Write in 1991. Today, I use a MacBook [...]
A hope for peace
9/11. It’s become shorthand instantly understood around the world for a day filled with tragedy. Can it really be 10 years since we watched, horrified, as one plane and then a second crashed into the World Trade Center? I was at work in my home office when my husband called. He was on his way [...]
Heartfelt writing
In honour of Valentine’s Day, here’s to heartfelt writing: The Toronto Star recently shared some pointers on writing a love letter. Writer Niesha Lofing points to a U.S. survey, in which two-thirds of women respondents aged 18 to 70 said what they most wanted for Valentine’s Day was a love letter, “in the handwriting of [...]
Live your life, part 2
We interrupt the week’s frantic shopping, work and studies to bring you this important public message: Do not wait to live your life until you find the perfect man or woman. If the Sexiest Man Alive (so named by People magazine), Ryan Reynolds, and the Sexiest Woman Alive (so named by Esquire magazine), Scarlett Johansson, [...]
Thanks for coming out
I have borrowed shamelessly from the ever-thoughtful Patti Digh (“What would you be doing today if you only had 37 days to live?”) for the title of this post, which references her own about National Coming Out Day, observed today in the United Kingdom and yesterday elsewhere. The date of October 11 marks the anniversary [...]
Pick four for life balance
After spending three weeks in academia, with no time to read newspapers or watch the news, let alone be active on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and such, it’s been interesting getting (slowly) back into the swing of things. Today, in between researching topics on peer-reviewed journals for a paper I have to write, I caught up [...]
Smile! You look good
There are few things more intimidating in the photo world than a passport picture. Maybe it’s because you know it’s going to stick with you for at least five years, and the “neutral” expression you’re supposed to have will actually end up making you look grim and ill. In fact, you’ll look more like a [...]
Never ‘just a dog’
A dog-walking buddy (someone encountered while we were both walking our dogs) recently lost one of her dogs to cancer. Holly was just two, really still a puppy, so my friend thought there was lots of time for treatment. There wasn’t. Holly died within two weeks of the cancer diagnosis. People — mostly those who [...]