Sloppy snowy day entry

[metawidget]

It's been a little while since I've posted; I won't try to catch up now, but here are a few tidbits.

I think I have all my tax stuff together — receipts, earnings, account set up. But the doing-my-taxes time horizon feels long. I'm going to do them, but I wish the world would slow down a bit so that taxes feel pointful.

I was bringing the car back after a museum adventure with the kids yesterday, and a grey-haired lady in a colourful sweater flagged me down and asked if Communauto needed you to have a cell phone to book and return cars (you don't — you can use a bus pass or a little plastic RFID dongle they issue). She chatted me up about language, puppetry, my kids, the neighbourhood — she's been close to that car drop in the same apartment since 1989. It was nice to have a neighbour chat. Maybe she'll come and listen to Libby and Cal at a farmer's market this summer.

I won an agency-level award for Inclusion on the strength of my work with Positive Space last month. I have the framed certificate up in my bedroom right now and used the purse to have a nice lunch with Elizabeth. The work I do feels like a lot of keeping the lights on but I'm recognizing that the keeping it alive is important, and every once in a while someone tells me that they're just heartened that the Positive Space Initiative exists and tries. I'll take that.

There's been some sort of screw-up with an issue ticket and my new team member. I got confirmation that I did click submit (the next person got the request — I'd been worried I'd been the missing link), but I'll be helping fix up the mess now that I'm back from March break.

Lastly, I read Wild Seed by Octavia Butler earlier this year and am reading The Parable of the Sower now. Some folks might say her genre is "science fiction" (I think she resisted the category) but as far as I'm concerned, it's "harrowing" and she is scarily good at it. Go read her stuff if it's your kind of thing.

Comments

[sabotabby]

She's a hard read but I'm always glad to finish one of her books. It feels worthwhile.

[dagibbs]

Butler wrote some excellent stuff, and I think Parable of the Sower might have been one of her best. I... really appreciated it as a read, though I'm not entirely sure it would be correct to say that I enjoyed it.

I don't think Butler resisted the genre label -- but I'm not sure.

[metawidget]

I think I've heard at least one interview where she was resisting being pigeonholed but she had a long career so maybe that's not representative…

[blogcutter]

Congratulations on your Inclusion award! What sorts of things do you do in your role with Positive Space?

[metawidget]

I organize workshops where we discuss orientation, gender, helpful listening and workplace inclusion; I connect people with LGBTQ2+-related questions with resources; I try to get LGBTQ2+ voices in consultations and focus groups… it's an interesting bunch of tasks that I hope make a difference at work.