M's immigration is done! We got a letter, zipped into the office and they gave him his little stamp of approval. Whew, what a relief. Nearly two years of waiting. It'll be mid-December before he can actually LEAVE the country (we have to have his PR card in-hand first), but it's officially FINISHED and he is now a permanent resident. Thank you, Canada (and Quebec)!
of all the short stories that have been ruined by the YEARS of bad English comp papers I have read.
"Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson
"Hill Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway
I know all I do lately is write about movies, but I've been trying to see one nearly every day with the film festival going on (AND another one starting in two weeks!).
Happy Thanksgiving! We had a great dinner yesterday that was busy, exhausting but lots of fun and YUMMY. The last few years we've been doing both Canadian and American Thanksgiving but I think this year, we won't. Too exhausting doing one and if it's another year before we do it again, FINE with me!
Started back into all my jobs today (had a week off from one job last week). Blech. Tired already. It's actually 10.10pm and I have four more hours to go tonight. And I have to teach all day tomorrow (they moved my Monday to Wednesday because of the holiday).
Mainly this week has been a movie-watching week what with some good stuff playing and the film festival continuing.
It's really strange how "hot" gangster movies have become the last 10 years. Thanks to the Sopranos, I guess. I have never actually sat through an entire episode of that show though I have nothing against it. I guess it's just impossible to keep up with all the stuff there is to watch and we almost never turn on our TV to watch what's on (we watch TV but almost only on DVD).
One of the best things about living in Montreal is the plethora of film festivals we have each year. Since none of them are huge, international events, they are not swamped with crowds or media, so it's easy to get tickets, the movies are often not crowded (for the most part), and you can see some amazing movies for a reasonable price.
Why are American journalists so damn parochial? Lamenting that the Nobel committee "has a habit of ignoring US writers" and "celebrating obscure ones" (Slate), we are told that Herte Muller's work "is a little dense for American readers" (Wall Street Journal). Inventing critical reactions by imaginary critics (read: dense American editors who've unlikely ever read anything not on the NYT bestseller list if even that), Time even says that "there has been some reluctance to embrace her relentlessly bleak totalitarian landscapes." WTF? What the hell does that mean? A reader once had some reluctance? Entire bodies of literary critics banded together to resist these bleak landscapes?
Google maps finally available for Montreal and here's our place. Strange, though, in that the pics were all taken in probably early April so the trees are all naked and it looks so different than it does now with leaves and shrubbery and flowers everywhere.
Futzing around here this morning, looking at some friends' places, I saw our friend I&C's house and he is coming out of his front door, taking out the recycling.
Why, oh why do they start jackhammering outside our place at 7am each morning (three mornings in a row) only to finish by 9? Doesn't it make more sense to jackhammer the afternoon before (or later in the morning) and let the entire street sleep for a while. Or at least those of us who went to bed at 3am!
