meet the new prime minister of canada!

this is stephen harper, leader of the conservative party. for the first time in a loooooong number of years, the conservatives have taken control of parliament in a minority government. no one's panicking at this point, tho, because they do only have a minority number of seats, although paul martin's career is probably over at this point. such a shame, he was a pretty nice guy and did a lot as finance minister. rumor has it that harper was bush's number one choice because apparently he lets little things like trade tariffs slide and he's a supporter of the war in iraq. great, that's all i need, for canada to enter the war with, what, like the 2 soldiers they have and then have to worry about taking the buses and subways again? but like i said, just try to get it passed in a minority government. i don't think the NDPs will be alliancing themselves with them any time soon and the bloc quebecois, well... they just want to separate and they'll be happy.

coming to new york in a few days, got lots to do before then. oh, and i start work on january 31! it will be good to get out of the house, and i'm soooo going to love working in downtown toronto. i'm not getting my hopes or expectations too high, i've been "scarred" by so many places. just as long as i get paid well and no one bothers me, patients included, i'll be content. that's not too much to ask for, is it?

settling in

so, it's official, as of february 1, 2006, i will officially be employed at dentist-in-a-box office in downtown toronto. i have mixed feelings about the whole thing. on the one hand, it's a huge corporation that employs about 60 or so dentists and i had to sign a 10 page contract with restrictive covenants and termination policies and money holdbacks, i just wanted to run away screaming. on the other hand, the office is located right above a second cup coffee shop in an awesome, young neighborhood full of artists and students and a really ethnically diverse population. i think i'll get a nice smattering of patients there and we'll have lots to talk about. also, the people that interviewed me are pretty stoked that i'm working there, they seem really nice and pretty chill - we'll see how it goes when i'm overbooked and cranky! i'm hoping to make just enough dough to get approved for a small mortgage so we can high-tail it outta here! this house is a wee bit crowded...

here's some more canadiana for all you interested folk. try to guess the canadian lingo! i've been inspired by my best bud rachel's previous posts from london, england, and had a great time reading the responses. let's see how much you americans (and anyone else around the globe) knows aboot canadian life! some are really easy, some not so much...try to guess and don't cheat by looking them up!

chesterfield
pop
zed
toque
converter
poutine

toughie: how many highways span the entire length of canada?

more fun stuff to come!

on my way to becoming a full-fledged wannabe canuck!

so i surrendered my NYS driver license for an ontario driver license to the ministry of transportation. kinda surreal, that's the only kind i've ever owned. my picture came out not to shabby, tho, and if you don't like it, they can re-take it for you. nice canadians ;-)

i also filled out my info for my health canada OHIP card at the ministy of health (don't you love all those ministries? so british!) i got my picture taken again, filled out my organ donation card, and registered to become eligible for benefits as of february 11 (three months after my date of landing). it felt kind of good, actually, to know that health insurance is on the way and i won't have to worry about that for anyone in my family anymore. i didn't have any health insurance at all in new york, and while cookie was covered under new york state, we paid the full premium for it and held our breath for ourselves.

and as you know (and you should be keeping abreast of international affairs!) the canadian national elections are coming up on monday, january 23. elections where called at the end of november after a vote of no confidence in the minority government of the liberal party. platform issues include repealing the GST (goods and services tax), a day-care allowance to famlies, health care reform, same-sex marriage, and various topics that i cannot vote on but can merely speculate. canuck is very excited to vote in this election - he loves paul martin and would love to see him remain as prime minister. but they are projecting a conservative majority (what, is this a trend in north america lately???) and liberals are starting to get worried... how would YOU vote if given the chance? take this quiz and find out! some stuff is canada-specific, but it's pretty easy to pretend. post your answers in the comments section!

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/CanadaVotes/HowYouShouldVote/vote.html

people are pricks...but it's all okay

so, it's been confirmed - i was notified on monday that dr. x's job offer is "on hold" and that they would be contacting me when they were hiring again. the schmuck didn't even have the decency to tell me in person - he kept dodging my calls and then had his receptionist break the news today in polite but prick-ish language. yeah, buddy, good luck with that crack head from quebec, i'm sure she'll do a marvelous job!

but just when you think things are looking kinda crappy and that $300 you wasted on plane tickets for those interviews was a wash, you get some really fantastic and flattering news. so, canuck had an interview at one of the places i also interviewed back in december. it was one of those dentist-in-a-box type chains and they own about 18 offices in the greater toronto area. i liked the people there, the office was pretty clean, and they location was AWESOME, but felt kinda funny signing such an extensive contract. i hadn't officially told them no, but was pretty sure i wasn't going to take it. well, apparently, they remembered me and they liked me, and as of monday, the position was still available. i have to call and see if this is for real, and if it is, i'll take it! i'll do anything to make money at this point.

canuck and his posse are at the storage facility unloading and re-packing up our stuff, which has finally cleared customs. we're going to bring the important stuff back to the house, like my clothes, linens, cookie's toddler bed, etc. which is great, because i've been wearing the same pants, shirt, and underwear for the last week (all washed repeatedly, i'm not that nasty!) and cookie has made herself very comfortable in our bed. apparently, our paperwork was not filed properly, which caused some turbulence but the nice people at customs believed our story of no, we aren't smuggling anything in, and the stuff we're importing isn't worth crapolla, anyway!

hurray for canadian customs!

dilemmas and things to pass time

so, i'm in a bit of limbo and settling into life as a wanabe canadienne. canuck hooked up the computer so i have all my settings, my music, and my pictures at close hand. right now we're just enjoying the weekend and relaxing, because tomorrow we kick the job search into high gear!
so, the day is filled with lazy dilemmas... how to rearrange my songs (i have about 1000 of them) into playlists that i can easily sort, access, and upload into my mp3 player. when do we want to start house-hunting (after i find a job!), where the heck do we want to live, what kind of house do we want? what are we going to have for dinner? should i bake today? should i go to the mall? should i even bother to shower today?

i guess i can't complain at this point. these kinds of dilemmas are fun to tackle and sort out. but they do get old very quickly, and i know from experience, once you have too much free time on your hands, nothing gets accomplished. i need to find a job. period.

to make me feel better, canuck took me to mc donald's for a soft serve ice cream cone. it helped ;-)

it really is a small world... unfortunately.

so i finished up my jurisprudence course and took the exam today, got it finished relatively quickly partly because it was so easy and partly because i really had to use the bathroom and wasn't allowed to leave until i was done! the people we were sitting next to were really cool, so we exchanged some e-mail addresses and hopefully we'll keep in touch. it's nice to make new friends in a new city, right?

so everything was peachy keen as a jelly bean until after the exam when canuck and i went to the college legal council to get our documents notarized so we could submit the last of our registration materials. there was this chick there from quebec who sat behind us during the course. first of all, during the whole thing she spoke on her cell phone in french. she also made a complete mess at her desk, spilling all her coffee and leaving napkins, paper, crumbs, and crap all over the place. then she shows up late on the second day, and is completely spaced out. while we were waiting to get our stuff notarized, she struck up a conversation with us about how she was sued in quebec numerous times, but the courts decided there was no case in all of them, blah, blah, blah. half the time she was talking, i couldn't follow what she was saying because she kept rambling, but she did speak perfectly fluent english. when we finally get to lawyer's office (he was extremely nice, by the way) she just happens to drop the name of the OTHER guy who supposedly hired me three weeks ago and who has not returned any of my calls and she then tells everyone how she is now going to work for him. so, in a nutshell, not only am i now officially unemployed and starting from scratch, i lost my job to this dumb, crack-head broad and i haven't even gotten an explaination why. i don't even know what to say or think right now, what is this? why do i keep getting screwed?

i'm depressed and i want to go home.

happy birthday, cookie puss!

let's see, it's now 7:59 p.m. EST... exactly two years ago at this time, i was huffing and puffing during the last stages of labor. cookie somersaulted out at exactly 8:55 p.m. after 20 hours leaking (my water broke first), driving thru a snowstorm, being hooked up to an IV, stalled dilation, pitocin, and a very weak epidural. was it worth it and would i do it again? hells, yeah!

of course, canuck and i took the subway all the way downtown and spent the majority of the day taking part one of the royal college of dental surgeons ethics and jurisprudence course, the last stage before i finally get my license in ontario. it was a bunch of pertinent and useful information like don't have sex with your patients, don't drill people's faces off and try to take them to collections when they don't pay, don't embezzle money and don't try to practice dentistry in your kitchen, yada, yada, yada. the room was stifling hot and the material far from interesting, but everyone was very nice and we met some cool people, plus they had a nice spread of free breakfast and lunch. tomorow's the open-book, 10-question exam and then we're done! so we got home around 5 p.m., had dinner, and had birthday cake and opened presents! we got some really great pics of cookie with her cake and presents, i'll upload them once we get our USB port hooked up. she blew out the candles herself, i was so proud of her!!! she's got a really great pair of lungs, i should know!

this is the map of the toronto subway system. not as extensive as the MTA, but it is cleaner and it doesn't smell like pee. see the rosedale station? prince owns a house in that area.

on the flip side, i was terribly homesick today and kind of worried about finding a job, getting a house, and moving out of my in-laws place. i've been here only two days, and although i love them dearly, canuck and i are desperate to venture off on our own. everyone keep their fingers crossed!

first official post from toronto, ontario, CANADA!

i haven't posted in a few days because the computer was packed up and we had disconnected our internet service, so it's been a while. i tell you, i feel naked without my computer. not that i'm a techno geek or anything, i just have gotten so used to checking my e-mail five times a day that when i don't or can't, i feel like i'm off my meds. so, i'm on a borrowed PC, but not for long, we're going to det up our own once the fog of travel and sleep deprivation lifts.

but, alas, we have arrived. it doesn't quite feel real just yet, but the homesickness has manifested itself in subtle ways. like i took out a leftover slice of pizza from our last dinner in new york to heat it up and i started crying. dumb, i know, but you can't help your emotions, right? crap like that'll pass in a bit, i'm sure. i'll just deal with it as it comes, i guess. canuck's been great thru this whole thing, he holds my hand and rubs my neck just when he senses that i need it.

cookie's calling for me and i'm fading fast, gotta cut this short. can't wait to tell of all the adventures of crossing the border and importing my car!

whoa!

holy crap, i didn't realize how much STUFF we have! canuck and i were patting ourselves on the back last nite, thinking, yeah, we totally got this under control, we accomplished sooooo much, this is a piece of cake! well, nana and grandpa came over today and i was thinking, hey, all they have to do is pack up our regular dishes, pots and pans, et cetera and we'll be done, right?

WRONG, i was sadly mistaken! it was like all this stuff had sex and multiplied in the last few hours and every nook, crannie, and crevice of our apartment gave birth to more piles of stuff kids! now, our apartment is rather large, a 1000 square feet duplex with lots of closet space, and canuck and i have always prided ourselves as being anti-clutter nazis. but it's really surprising how all this random stuff that we didn't even think about whewe lived here because it was so artfully put away (we are also fairly tidy people): cookie's infant car seat, my breastpump (both of them), a wine rack, computer wires, blankets, cookie's toys, and loads of other bits and pieces that i had no idea existed but were vital and could not be thrown away. i was totally floored by nana and grandpa's packing savvy and was amazed at how they fit stuff and where. we have bit more touching up to do, but i can't even think about it now, i'm just so fried...
good news, i have 2 more interviews lined up, these are a little closer to where we want to live. i hope these people are ready to hire and won't change their minds just as i'm getting ready to sign a contract! funny, canuck has one lined up just a few blocks down from where mine are! that would be a trip if it worked out that way!

as a special treat, nana and grandpa brought this for lunch today. each time i say i won't do it, i'll regret it, i do it anyway, and voila! it's been over eight hours and i can still taste it. never again... until next time!

echo, echo, echo!!!

that's the sound one can expect to hear when walking thru our partially vacated apartment. my dear friend "tamtam" (hello, darling!) came and did us a huge favor by taking one of our couches, a t.v. stand, coffee table, and tempermental t.v. set. i'm so proud of us, too, because we both successfully navigated the u-haul truck into our half-occupied, pie-shaped driveway without dinging any cars or ripping any brick facing off the house! (you guys know that story all too well). chicks rule! so now we are sorta couch-less, our t.v.'s on the floor and the surround sound system and dvd player are all packed up. but we're keeping the PS2 connected until the bitter end, so i can play the sims and canuck can play NHL 2001 and we can watch movies because our satellite t.v. has been cancelled, and all we get is fox news, HSN, and angel/bible network (exactly what a liberal democrat and a canadian need 24/7 access to!)

i heart you, my little sim peeps!







nana was a saint and took cookie to the playground at the mall while we moved all of tamtam's stuff downstairs. we're going to meet up at on the border and take advantage of a free meal courtesy of nana and grandpa! speaking of food, we just cleaned out or fridge, cabinets, and stove. and i don't just mean clean... i have literally performed my first exorcism. i would be so excited and proud if it were actually my fridge and appliances i was cleaning and not our jerk-off landlord's! i would even feel good if he was at least nice to us (which he's not). so, we're busting our humps getting this place in ship-shape condition, and i know he's going to have something to whine about. i'm even plunking down about $300 to have his cheap and nasty carpet cleaned, and not just steam cleaned, we're getting the "crystal dry carpet cleaning system" which will transform this apartment (i'm incapable of doing a half-assed job, no matter how big the jerk-off). so, in a nutshell, after the carpet cleaning and painting, we'll have spent about $500 to get back our $2400 security deposit. after all this, we'd better get that money back or i think the canuck is going to get physical...

i should've known...

that things would be too good and i would get too relaxed. one of the offices that i had secured a job in just called to tell me that, hey, despite the fact that i spent about $300 to fly up for the interview, the person who was leaving has decided to stay and hey, they don't need me anymore! i still have one place secured (at least i hope so!) but it's only a trial period for one day a week. i feel like i just got royally screwed. and the woman i talked to was like, "oops, sorry 'bout that!" like it was nothing. i should have chewed her out then and there, but i don't want to burn any bridges, right? so i'm scrambling to fax more resumes, hopefully i'll find something else even better and closer to home. i guess everything happens for a reason, right?

i feel pretty, oh so pretty...

i finally got out of the house last night and did something other than pack! seriously, i had not left the apartment in five days. yuck! i had some major league gray hairs and my eyebrows needed much upkeep and grooming, so i had the canuck buy me a box of clairol nice and easy medium brown and got glorious results for a fraction of the price. then i went to express and picked up some half-price editor pants and $15 tops, and lastly stopped at the salon to get my brows waxed. i wanted to splurge for a pedicure, but decided i can do it myself, since i found an unopened salon shaper box that may be useful in removing my disgusting callouses (probably more info than you needed to know). i feel much better now, more like a mommy than a zombie from night of the living dead. it's really sad, too. all this effort just to look moderately kempt, imagine how much effort is required to look glamorous!

tonite's dinner with my dad and that side of the family at his house on l.i. that should be fun! time to squeeze in last minute time with everyone. we're actually almost done packing, just the kitchen dishes and our clothes. tomorrow my friend tamika's coming to take our big couch, coffee table, t.v. stand, and anything else we can unload. the place is going to be so empty...

i'm trying to get a little flickr thingy to appear so i can upload all my photos, but i just can't seem to get it to work. i told you i'm about as techno savvy as a caveman (no offense to all you cavemen readers out there, but c'mon, you guys painted stuff on walls with dirt and hit women over the head with clubs, what do you expect?) but i'm determined to get it to work so ya'll can see pics of the cookie monster! time for me to go make pancakes (gotta use up the last of the bisquick)!

saran wrap for furniture???

yeah, it exists! and it's a life-saver, because it holds stuff together and protects from scratches and stains and everything. it ain't cheap, tho, $22.50 a pop! we took down the table and wrapped in saran wrap and a quilt. today we'll take apart the bed frame, wrap it up in saran wrap, and sleep on the mattress and box spring. cookie has been sleeping in our bed, a definite parenting no-no, but i feel so guilty for throwing her schedule out of wack these past few days and she's been absolutely clinging to me. i'm also over-compensating by putting on multiple re-runs of dora, diego, and sponge bob that are still recorded on our satellite DVR. we have no more cable service because dish network had to cancel it before they sent us the box (?). dumb! funny, the only channels we get now are FOX news and the religous channels! god help me!

one room down, a zillion more to go!

found a pretty interesting article on BBC news about beating the holiday blues, turns out going back to work can help! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4577392.stm. i gotta say, i haven't been working since december 23, and while i've enjoyed the vacation, i'm getting a little stir crazy. i'm also running outta $$$! i start work on january 24, i hate to say that i can't wait (damn, i'll regret that in a few weeks!).

the computer room is done. the canuck and i, master packers that we are, managed to fit all of our hang-able clothes into one u-haul wardrobe box. there are so many different kinds of boxes!

still a lot more to go, but we are making progress. cookie put a sharpie marker in her mouth. she now has a mustache for god knows how long. i would've gotten a picture, but the kid just doesn't stay still long enough!

4 foot high pile o' newspaper

i'm definitely sleep deprived, since darling cookie couldn't make up her mind where she wanted to hang out at midnight - with daddy in bed, or with mommy, trying to get a moment's peace and quiet on the couch while watching 1984 reruns of the cosby show. she then woke us up at 7:00 a.m. asking for dora (the usual). i had to jet to the dentist to get my last two crowns cemented. i now have full gold crowns on teeth numbers 30 and 31. i love working with all gold, i'll take those crowns with me to the grave!!!! but, damn, it takes me forever to get numb, especially when they need to do a lower block. that's the inferior alveloar nerve to the left, you have to inject the anesthesia in the back of the mouth to numb the lower teeth because the nerve hides in the lower jaw, thus "blocking" that whole area. that's why everone complains about their lip feeling fat when they go to the dentist. ugh, i feel EVERYTHING, even when i am numb. and i also almost swallowed one of my crowns. not good! more motivation for me to really take care of my teeth, since i just hate going through all that. now i feel really bad for what i put my patients through. it truly sucks! the universal tooth numbering system - check it out! my new crowns are on the lower right molars.

packed up the fine china today, which was hard for me because i love having it all displayed on my hutch. i think we'll tackle the regular dishes in a few days. i got a little sad again today for, like, the DUMBEST reason. i took the dishes out of the dishwasher and saw there was a little bit of dried ham glaze on the plate. i quickly cleaned it off, but got depressed because the ham was, you know, a symbol of the holidays and all the good times and now they are over and i just removed the last vestige of it. so i got all misty-eyed and the canuck reminded me that canada has spiral-cut hams, too, and that there will be plenty more glaze to take off once we get our own place. wow, writing this all out, i realize how dumb that must sound!

tomorrow's another day...

i broke my fucking toe

life always interesting, just as it's time to really get busy and it's time for the most functional of mommy to surface, the clutzy mommy appears and rams her foot into the wall, how the hell she did it is still beyond her. the fourth toe on the left foot is pulverized, can't walk on on that foot, can't put any pressure on it whatsoever. i'm not going to the doctor, 'cuz i'll wind up paying $500 for some crappy county hospital to say there is nothing they can do but buddy-tape it, which is something i can do myself anyway (i'm a doctor with no health insurance, remember?)perfect timing! fuck, fuckity, fuck fuck fuck. it hurts!!!

happy new year choco fountain!

whew, the last of the fam just left, and we won't have to cook for the remaining time here, which is great, 'cuz i'll be WAY too tired anyway. we had a nice repast - sandwiches made with spiral cut ham, turkey, and different cheeses, hot hors d'houvres, salad, wine. the piece de resistance was indeed the chocolate fountain, which was a gift from nana and grandpa, and dripped over four pounds of melted semi-sweet, gooey confection. and we had the biggest, fattest, juiciest, and freshest strawberries queens could provide for us to dip in, it was marvelous! i didn't want to put it away, it was just so fascinating to watch! here's a pic of the whole ensemble, note the box in the background and how the fountain is "supposed" look. didn't quite work out that way, but is still worked and no one complained. i think the chocolate needs to be a little thinner, we'll have to work on that next time (when i get my house!!!).

here's a picture of cookie playing with her present from aunt ellen. a rare quiet moment for all.

the holidays were great, but now it's time to pack up and get serious!