This is my life, 'til now. It's broken up into university terms; I've been thinking about my life on a term-by-term basis since I started university, and it makes sense. Months are too short, years are too long. Everything in Canada starts happening in the fall term (September to December), and everything breaks in the summer (May to August), so even as an adult, life seems to organize itself term-by-term.
Update (February 2010): Life doesn't settle into those tidy four-month terms as much anymore, but close. Everything starts in September, with a crescendo at Christmas. Then there's January to June. I know the public schools break mid-March, and they have a term change around then too, but that's not enough of a change to register with me. I suppose the big change is the arrival of spring. But I'll keep the old university terms in this document, for convenience.
| Jan - Apr Winter Term |
May - Aug Summer Term |
Sep - Dec Fall Term |
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|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | August 1st, 8:15 am CST: born, Regina General Hospital,
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Mother: Kathleen Father: Derek Brother: David (18.5 months old) |
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| 1976 | February (approx): moved to England with family | August 1st: turned 1 August (approx): moved to South Africa with family |
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| 1977 | August 1st: turned 2 | ||
| 1978 | August 1st: turned 3 | ||
| 1979 | August 1st: turned 4 | ||
| 1980 | August 1st: turned 5 | ||
| 1981 | August 1st: turned 6 | ||
| 1982 | I guess I started school around the beginning of '82, although I don't remember. I know school years in SA go from January to December, to break over Christmas for the summer. I was in Grade 1. | August 1st: turned 7 | |
| 1983 | This must have been the start of Grade 2, although again, I don't
remember it. Best Friend: Rosemary Primrose |
August 1st: turned 8 Sometime this summer we moved from our acreage in South Africa to a house in Lumsden, Saskatchewan. We took a big trip around the US on the way -- Philadelphia, Washington, Orlando, New York. |
September: started Grade 3 at Lumsden Elementary School. |
| 1984 | August 1st: turned 9 | September: Grade 4 Teacher: Miss Youck |
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| 1985 | August 1st: turned 10 | September: Grade 5 Teacher: Mr Wiebe |
| 1986 | August 1st: turned 11 This summer we moved from Lumsden to North Walsham, Norfolk, in England. |
Sometime in fall I started school in North Walsham High School. I effectively skipped a grade, because there are 6 years of elementary (primary) school before high school starts, but I only did 5. | |
| 1987 | August 1st: turned 12 | Started Year 2 of high school at North Walsham High. | |
| 1988 | This summer, before I turned 13, we moved back to Saskatchewan.
Prince Albert, this time. August 1st: turned 13 |
Started Grade 9 at Vickers Elementary School, and got my
left ear pierced. | |
| 1989 | August 1st: turned 14 | Started Grade 10 at Carlton Comprehensive High School | |
| 1990 | August 1st: turned 15 I guess it was this summer that we moved to Candle Lake, although I don't remember the exact timing. It was still close enough to Prince Albert that I could go to Carlton, though. 1.5 hour bus ride... |
Started Grade 11 at Carlton Comprehensive High School | |
| 1991 | August 1st: turned 16 | Started Grade 12 at Carlton Comprehensive High School | |
| 1992 | June: Graduated from High School. June-August: first job August 1st: turned 17 |
September: started my first year at the University of Waterloo. Life begins... Term: 1A Lived: in residence December: acquired first boyfriend |
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| 1993 | Term: 1B Dave was there. (He had been on a work term the term before.) Had more fun and a better social life than ever before. |
August 1st: turned 18. Term: work term, but I didn't get a job. Took a couple of courses and hung out with Jill, Shar and Amy Fong. Lots of fun. (In retrospect, that seems like it could be sarcastic, but it isn't. I really had a good time.) |
Term: 2A Dude, I remember nothing about this term. Not because of drugs, either. Let's see. I was living in the house on Albert Street with Boyfriend 1 and Melynda and that black engineer guy. Read akt, did homework, hung out at CSC, hung out with boyfriend, I guess. |
| 1994 | Term: Work Term 1 at BNR Department 7K52, and my first real job. Desperately boring work, but the people I worked with were wonderful and probably somewhat bemused by me. My boss loved me even though I never did any work. Lived: in Barrhaven with a teacher who was trying to pay off her mortgage, and a girl studying to be a dental assistant. Spent weekends shopping at the Rideau Centre. I must have visited Waterloo as well, to be with Boyfriend 1, but I don't remember it. |
Term: 2B August 1st: turned 19. Another term which has melted into the mists of time. |
Term: Work Term 2 at BNR 7K52 again. This time I lived with Mike and Asif in Kanata. Broke up with Boyfriend 1 almost 2 years after we started going out. |
| 1995 | Term: 3A Janet came to Waterloo after throwing her hands up in disgust at her whole life in Saskatoon. January: Met new and interesting people, in particular a guy with beautiful long brown hair, a charming manner, and the very cool name of Blake. February 6: Went to see "Pulp Fiction" (for the third time) at the Princess Theatre with a bunch of CSC types, notably Moses, Ian Goldberg, and Blake. I sat between Ian and Blake, and held hands with Ian during the hypodermic needle scene. It was cold and icy, and Blake offered to walk me home. We held hands on the icy bits so I wouldn't fall, and because Blake's hands were warm. When we got to my house, we didn't want to part, so we went to the Coffee Time next door, and talked about music, life, school, for two hours. March 5: Held a "Grammies" party at my house. I can't remember who came -- maybe it was just Blake and I. The Grammies sucked. After they ended, Blake was tired and it was late and cold, so I asked him to stay over. We went to bed (fully dressed) and snuggled. Blake (apparently unused to the physical intimacy of us CSC types) asked "So are we going out, or what?" I couldn't think of any reason why not, so I said "Yeah, I guess so." |
Term: Work Term 3, at BNR I was in a different department this time, and they worked a lot harder than the 7K52ers. Or maybe they just didn't play as hard. Either way, it was a horrid term. The work was astonishingly dull, my co-workers didn't socialize, I was living in an ugly high-rise with an obsessive-compulsive med student and his stupid victim of a girlfriend, I had $15/week to spend on groceries, and I travelled to Toronto every weekend but one to visit Blake. That was the good part, and a gentle introduction to the city that is now my home. August 1st: turned 20. |
Term: 3B Lived: still in the house on Albert Street, with Boyfriend 1 and some other people. Janet had started going out with F'jord and moved out. Blake and I effectively lived together, although he had another apartment in co-op which he shared with Woody. He spent most of his time at my place, though. |
| 1996 | Term: Work Term 4, at Everyware I was hired to do QA, I think, but I ended up working on the Bank of Montreal website. It was pretty cool, except the company was more fucked up than I could possibly comprehend. Lived: in Mississauga with a guy named... Ross? and another guy named... Stewart? Walked to work. Dieted: lost 25 pounds by eating the same thing every single day. Visited Blake in Toronto every weekend. |
Term: Work Term 5, at Everyware Gave up on Mississauga. Moved to Toronto and lived with Blake's father, commuting to Mississauga every day, by subway and then car. Gave up on the diet. August 1st: turned 21. |
Term: 3C Decided to cut my losses and get out of UW with a General Math degree, rather than failing all the fourth year classes and getting kicked out. Took the few classes I needed to graduate -- mostly electives, whoo! Lived: with Mike and Christina and lots of roaches in Married Students Apartments. Travelled to Toronto by bus every weekend to visit Blake. Graduated. |
| 1997 | Got a job at Jetform Corporation doing QA. Lived in a basement bachelor apartment on Duplex Ave with Blake. | August 1st: turned 22. Saw lots of movies, watched lots of TV, went for coffee often, hung out with Blake, ordered in frequently. |
Started to hate job at Jetform. QA is very, very boring. |
| 1998 | Devised plan to go to Europe and "find myself". My uncle
was having a big 80th birthday bash which my father wanted
to attend, so I said I'd go with him. Then I decided I
should stay in Europe, travel around, maybe get a job, whatever. Paid off student loans and saved like a fiend. April 22nd: left for England |
England, Scotland, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Italy again, France,
England again Hostels, trains, walking, museums, art galleries, lying in the sun in Tuscany, yelled at in Austria, screwed over in Croatia. Failed to find myself. August 1st: turned 23, in Venice. Bought myself a red Murano glass ring. Venice is the best city in the world, and I can't think of a better gift to myself than being there. August 20th: Back in Toronto, thank god, so good to be home! Broke my red murano glass ring. |
Found a 1 bedroom apartment on Oriole Parkway. What bliss, to have doors we can close! Tried the "stay at home girlfriend" thing, but couldn't justify it to myself. Joined legions of Blake's friends by working for Blake's father for a while, part-time. |
| 1999 | March 24: Got a job at a small software company, doing technical support. Nice to be like a grown-up, with a real job and a proper income, not having to justify your existence by cleaning house or doing crafts. Errghgh, crafts. | August 1st: turned 24. Work, work, coffee, coffee,
movies, movies, work, work. Took a course in photography at George Brown College. It was a lame waste of money, but I got a cool camera. |
Work, eat, sleep, see movies, work, eat, sleep. |
| 2000 | February: Became officially engaged. April: Went to New York for a long weekend, got rained on, stayed with Jason and Lindsay, saw Sascha and Dee. Went to Florida for the rest of the week. Blake got a sunburn, we went to a nature reserve and to a mall. |
August 1st: turned 25. Work, eat, sleep, plan wedding, work, eat, sleep... |
September: Started taking voice lessons. November 10: Married Blake |
| 2001 | January: Joined the Toronto Classical Singers. March: Took Blake to England and Scotland for a 2 week vacation. Visited York, Edinburgh, family in Uttoxeter (near Stoke) and London. Met and hung out with my wonderful half-brother Rob. |
August 1st: turned 26 August 31st: took possession of our condominium. |
Bought lots of furniture for the condo. Joined the Toronto
Classical Singers. October: Started my journal. December: Concert: Saint-Saens, A Christmas Oratorio. Spent Christmas alone together; roasted a duck. |
| 2002 |
Work, choir practice, singing. March: Concert: Mozart's Coronation Mass and Handel's Coronation Anthems. A visit to my parents' (alone -- my mother was supposed to have hip replacement surgery, but it was cancelled. I went to visit anyway.) |
May: Concert: Haydn's Creation June: Jason and Lindsey's wedding in Chicago August: Turned 27; lousy birthday. Conceived Delphine. |
September: Another visit to my parents', with Blake; this time
the surgery
actually happened. First trimester, really tired and sick. October: Told everyone about the pregnancy. Midmonth entered second trimester: felt human again! December: Bach's Christmas Oratorio |
| 2003 | Third trimester; took Grade 6 Royal Conservatory vocal exam ; performed in Schubert's Mass in Bb and Handel's Dettingen Te Deum; last "term" at work. | May 10: Delphine is
born. August 1: I turn 28. | I'm home with Delphine. In October Blake, Del and I go to Saskatchewan. In November we go to New York for Sascha and Leontine's wedding. For the Christmas concert the choir performs Ralph Vaughan Williams' Hodie. |
| 2004 | I started taking Delphine to playgroup. Delphine and I went to Florida in February. In choir, we're working on Mozart's Requiem, which doesn't suck too much, and a Salieri mass. | Delphine turned 1, I turned 29. We moved Delphine into her crib at fifteen months. She started talking. In June we went to Las Vegas for TUSCon. | I started reading a lot. Delphine and I went to Saskatchewan in September. Conceived Cordelia at Christmas. I sang Messiah in the choir. |
| 2005 | First trimester with Cordelia -- much nausea and misery. Delphine started daycare and I started working part-time. Blake, Delphine and I went to Florida for a week and saw turtles. | Delphine turned two, and I turned thirty and had a nice party up on the roof, with barbeque and cake and ice cream and little kids. Second trimester with Cordelia, which was much harder than with Delphine. I worked some more down at St. Clair. It was a very hot summer, or at least it seemed like it to me. | Cordelia was born on September 27th. Delphine moved to the preschool room at daycare. I skipped out of choir for the Christmas concert because Cordelia was still so small. (they did Bach's Magnificat, which I am sorry I missed.) |
| 2006 | Delphine potty trained herself. In choir we did Gounod's Messe Solonnelle (again) and Faure's Requiem (again). | We all went to Saskatchewan for Delphine's third birthday and my dad's eighty-fifth. I turned thirty-one but I am fairly sure I didn't do anything special. World Cup 2006! I always enjoy the World Cup while it's happening, and then forget about it right afterwards. Kind of like American Idol. | On Cordelia's first birthday we bought a house, which was easy and fun, and in October we sold our condo, which was hard and stressful. We moved on December 1st, which sucked unspeakably, and had Christmas in a mostly unpacked house was also crap. But we had a nice time anyway. I mean, it was still Christmas; even a bad Christmas is still good. In choir we did Messiah again (must be an even-numbered year.) |
| 2007 | We started the Big Reno -- well, the first Big Reno; we knocked out most of the walls on the first floor, redid all the electrical, and put in a whole new kitchen, yahoo! In choir we did Vivaldi's Gloria (Snoria is more like it) and Haydn's Nelson Mass in February, and Vaughn Williams' Sea Symphony and Elgar's Coronation Ode in April. Love me some dead English composers! | We finished the reno in May and then had a big deck built in July. We didn't do anything or go anywhere particular in summer, apart from a week at Balm Beach with the family in August. I turned 32 and Delphine and Ursa decorated some cupcakes for me. | In September Delphine started Junior Kindergarten and Cordelia started nursery school. Cordelia and I went to Saskatchewan to visit my mum at home and my dad in the nursing home -- Delphine stayed home with Blake. Working on Bach's Christmas Oratorio in choir. |
| 2008 | This was the year nothing was supposed to happen: no pregnancies, no babies, no moving, no renovating. Contrary to good foreshadowing, that's exactly what happened: not much. Delphine continued to do well at Kindergarten, despite having the Incredible Missing Teacher (and lots of substitute teachers). I volunteered a little bit at the school library, and spent hours and hours picking people up and dropping them off. | Delphine turned five in May. and I turned thirty-three in August. The summer after Junior Kindergarten was huge for Delphine: she learned how to read, she learned how to ride a bike and she climbed her first tree. In June we painted the front door chartreuse and the porch floor blue. We went down to the Harbourfront and went in a boat, and the girls and I went to Saskatchewan for a couple of weeks. | In September Delphine started Senior Kindergarten, and Cordelia turned three and started her second year of Nursery School. |
| 2009 | |||
| 2010 |
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