I'm Fired:

The Winds of Change

2010-09-14T19:29:00.006-04:00

”The ability to be happy is nothing other than the ability to come to terms with how things change.” My favourite blogger, David, writes this in a post entitled “88 Important Truths I’ve Learned About Life” (#87)It’s a simple formula, and if it’s true then it’s encouraging. No veil of mystery: We each hold the key to our own happiness and it lies in our outlook. Accept that life is cyclical;

I'm Fired...Take Two.

2010-07-21T10:17:00.003-04:00

There’s nothing like a near-disaster to spur us to push the reset button on what really matters in life. When fire struck the apartment next to mine two weeks ago and I was ousted from my pad with no more than a moment’s notice, I put myself and a few others through days of bedlam, stress and upset. Now that I’m neatly installed in my sleek, furnished condo for the summer and the dust has begun

Shuffle I.D.

2010-05-13T16:17:00.016-04:00

I love my iPod Shuffle. It’s not one of the teeny new metallic ones that seemingly have no controls on them; it’s not even one of the ones before that, or before that. It’s first-generation. You know – the white plastic ones that came with their own Handy Neck Lanyard. The Shuffle was a pretty revolutionary concept for its time; at least in my very-late-adopter’s mind it was. It was the perfect

Static Interference. We're Breaking Up.

2010-04-18T16:10:00.004-04:00

Dear Blog: I’m beginning to wonder if you and I are truly meant for each other. I want us to be together, but the fact is we don’t really have that much in common. Good blog updates are supposed to be brief and posted frequently; mine appear once in a blue moon and, as anyone who’s actually taken the time to read all the way through knows, very long. They’re also supposed to be informative/funny/

All Fired Up

2010-03-27T13:02:00.002-04:00

I launched this blog on May 29, 2008, with these words: “My name is Cara. One month ago today, I fired myself.” There I was, hammering out a (pretty good, in my opinion, for a first try) blog post about being all fired up with the energy, optimism and fear of having taken a gigantic, parachute-free leap into the sweeping canyon of changing my life: Worried I didn’t have the courage to quit my

New Directions

2010-03-03T11:09:00.002-05:00

February 1994: It was the dead of a cold, snowbound winter that was a precursor to what I would later discover to be an even colder referendum year. I had been transferred from Toronto to cosmopolitan Montreal to work at my company’s head office. This was my first (and - who could have known then! – only!) corporate job. I had less than an inkling of what it would entail (the person responsible

Winners and Losers

2010-02-15T17:56:00.003-05:00

While I was watching the breathtaking Olympic men’s moguls competition last night my television screen almost cracked. Not from all the fist-pumping and arm-flailing I was engaging in as Alex Bilodeau finally took Canada to solid gold status on our home turf with his mesmerizing performance, but from the stinking, miserable, sourpuss expression on Dale Begg-Smith’s mug as he stood on the

Proof Positive.

2010-02-14T07:00:00.003-05:00

I could compose a curmudgeonly update about the ridiculous (to the point that it’s no longer dreaded by me) Valentine’s Day hoopla that’s going to go on today, but I’ve decided to leave the curmudgeoning to the self-proclaimed master - my friend DJ. You can check out his grumpfest here. I hope he writes about Valentine’s Day because the festival of Hallmark cards and chocolate-filled cardboard

Now Appearing in Print.

2010-01-25T07:52:00.003-05:00

Eep! I’m suddenly 41. How did that happen?I was hoping to toss an update on here before the Big Day but like in many areas of my life, personal-writing time seems to be getting away from me lately. The 12 months since I stood atop Kelimutu in Flores and blew out the candle on my 40th-birthday pineapple have evaporated. That’s a horribly North American affliction, isn’t it. I don’t even like

New Years Present

2009-12-31T12:31:00.007-05:00

One year ago I was holed up in a dusty, nowhere town in the middle of Laos, musing about an impending 2-day trek through the Phu Hin Bun NPA. I was worried that if nobody else signed up for the trek I’d be spending the last night of 2009 sitting around a campfire at my guesthouse with a few other disconnected backpackers who also hadn’t planned their agendas quite correctly, feeling awkward. (As

A Charlie Brown Christmas

2009-12-20T19:29:00.005-05:00

Christmas week, 2008: I was navigating my way down the Nam Song River in a sea kayak in Vang Vieng, Laos as the sun beat down on my curls from high above the karst mountains. Later I got lost/trapped while caving with sweet Bretchje from Sweden, who had fallen out of a moving bus onto a highway just weeks before; we then rewarded ourselves for surviving our respective brushes with disaster by

The Wanderer

2009-12-17T14:47:00.004-05:00

I realize now why everything feels so wonky and weird around me - my space, my friends, my skin...Travel is the answer. I am not meant to sit still. I am meant to travel. I am not of this apartment, of this street, of this city. My heart and mind live out in the world now, and there is so much of it yet to discover. I have taken but a tiny bite of a corner of one sliver of a pie of unfathomable

Marching Onward.

2009-11-25T21:26:00.007-05:00

“Life is a series of experiences, each of which makes us bigger, even though it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.” Henry FordYup, Hank, it’s pretty hard to realize this alright. If your musing has any truth to it, then I’m a giant marchin’ fool right about now.

What I Love About Being a Car Jockey: By Cara Vogl

2009-11-19T20:16:00.003-05:00

“People enjoy chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results.” Albert EinsteinThis isn’t the first time I’m using Al’s wood-whacking musing in my blog. The first time, I had just fired myself and taken off to the deep woods of northern Ottawa to help my then-boyfriend renovate his ramshackle cottage for a few weeks. I reflected upon that time with simplicity: “There is nothing like

Home.

2009-10-29T20:32:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow is the day. For the first time in 456 days, I will have an address. A place to call home. I suppose it’s a rather monumental moment and there’s no doubt that I should be blogging about it...I just don’t know what to write. Maybe in part because I‘m not sure how I feel. I suppose some might imagine that there would be nothing but happiness, relief, joy at settling in again and

Give a Little Thanks

2009-10-12T08:56:00.002-04:00

Every night when I snuggle down into the bed (I can’t say “my bed”, as I haven’t actually slept on my own in over 14 months), just before dozing off I mentally say a quick little prayer of thanks: Thanks for the purely safe, warm and delightful feeling that that pocket of time between wake and slumber unfailingly brings and for how lucky I am to be able to experience it every night (save for a

Cough. Rumble. Wheeze. Grumble. Protest. Sputter. Quit. Repeat.

2009-10-03T16:09:00.008-04:00

It’s woefully evident that I haven’t been inspired to blog much lately: Some re-marketed thoughts on materialism and a half-assed back-to-school update are all I’ve haphazardly chucked on here through most of the summer. Although, maybe “inspired” isn’t the correct word choice. I’m wondering if I’ve just lost focus of, and faith in, the point of medium. What is a blog? Why do we keep one? Most

Ink Wells and Alarm Bells.

2009-09-03T14:37:00.003-04:00

The school supply aisle at my local office equipment store is a bewildering place. From what I recall of my own college days (close to 20 years ago, ahem), selection was nowhere near what it is today. Back then you showed up on the first day with more or less the same binders, notebooks and writing utensils as all your mates (and then quickly proceeded to express your individuality through

The Ties That Bind

2009-07-25T20:58:00.003-04:00