Like the rest of the world I was shocked and saddened by the death of Robin Williams. The first reaction is disbelief?how could this be true? Then to hear the early reports that he died by his own hand seemed to make the story doubly tragic. It’s one thing to die suddenly or after a… Read more »
My name is Hazel and I’m a recovering workaholic. An insightful reading of these From Where I Sit columns over the past ten years or so would have revealed that I have a challenge striking a reasonable balance between work and play. In some columns I’ve stated my dilemma candidly along with whatever trick I… Read more »
Here we are ’celebrating’ another long Heritage Day weekend in Alberta. The temperature for the past week or so has been far too much for many of us. We prairie kids don’t do that well when the humidity pushes the “feels like” temperature toward the forties. For those of us stuck home working, there is… Read more »
As I write this the countdown clock on our website says it’s only twenty-six days, fourteen hours, and three minutes until the start of the second annual Babas and Borshch Ukrainian Festival. As Festival Coordinator the buck ultimately starts and stops with me. In many ways I have a better grip on things this year… Read more »
I firmly believe that to survive in this world we all need the right combination of basic intelligence and a healthy dose of common sense. We don’t have any say in how much of the first ingredient we’re blessed or cursed with. We simply hope our parents didn’t settle. Common sense is a bit trickier…. Read more »
When I don’t celebrate a statutory holiday like Canada Day or Boxing Day I feel vaguely cheated. When I don’t have big plans for the May (or any other) long weekend I feel disappointed. It’s one thing not to have elaborate plans for rest and relaxation; that can be forgiven. It’s quite another to always… Read more »
For every person who’s ever felt hopelessly out of the loop because she doesn’t understand what those young kids are always doing on their phones, take heart. For those employers who resent the lost productivity when staff members steal time to update their status, tweet, and post, take heart. For those parents who despair that… Read more »
Most people I know are busy. But perhaps that’s an understatement. I don’t mean the occasional hectic burst of activity, I mean going full tilt day after day. By busy I mean trying to juggle multiple competing items on the calendar most days. I mean tearing from one event to another just putting in an… Read more »
This spring, for the first time ever as a grown-up, home-owning woman, I will not be buying or setting out bedding plants. Shocking, I know, but, near as I can tell, the earth has not stopped spinning on its axis. I’m not totally surprised. Years ago, as a newlywed of Ukrainian ancestry living on a… Read more »
There’s nothing like the cable TV available in a hotel room to force one to look beyond one’s usual favourites. How else to explain why I was watching the animated movie, The Lorax, on a recent trip to Niagara Falls? Roy was a delegate to a national conference and I tagged along for a well-deserved… Read more »