Updates from the home front

I’m behind in posting about things, so I’m going to do a few posts to catch up! First, a catchup on homelife!

The Fuzz: Fuzz seems to be settling in. The cats aren’t wrestling and fighting as much as they were (though they still get into it now and again). They’re still not quite friendly, but I don’t worry as much about them killing each other, so that’s good.

Bedroom: We bought a bunch of new furniture for the bedroom, from IKEA. We needed to replace our dressers, and wound up getting new nightstands and a new shelf as well, and a new tv to replace the huge monstrosity that was in there. It’s really nice! Eventually we’ll probably get a bigger bed as well, but that is still a while off.

Trevor took a couple photos! They’re phone pictures, so a little fuzzy, but you get the idea.

There’s already a lot more room to move around in the bedroom despite there being more furniture, which is nice! And the new dresser is a lot nicer than the old one.

Kijiji experiences: We were able to sell our old TV on Kijiji, which was actually really awesome. I hadn’t sold anything on there before, but it’s really great for when you just want to get rid of something- people will come and pick it up, which saves a lot of hassle! Our old TV was really heavy and large, and now, we won’t have to lift it anymore and instead we have a much lighter tv. Hooray!

Next, I’ll write some more about other things that have been going on. Stay tuned!


Things that are awesome

This is just going to be a quick catch-all of things in my life right now that are awesome.

Snowthrower of awesome

Our electric snowthrower–  we don’t have a big driveway, but it’s enough that shoveling gets to be a time-sucking endeavour.  This thing makes clearing snow a lot quicker, and we don’t wind up with huge piles of snow that are hard to see around when we’re backing out of the driveway.  It’s a Toro 1800 Power Curve .

It’s pretty sturdy for an electric, and though it’s not made to eat through lots of slush and ice, it does great with all different kinds of snow.

Green Chai Tea – This stuff is awesome.  I like chai, I like green tea, and this particular combination is good.  The little tag on the teabag has a fortune-type thing!

Grooveshark–  Grooveshark is an amazing app that gives you access to a huge catalog of music you can stream- it’s basically like a huge, all-request radio station.  You can upload your own music so that you can access it through Grooveshark, and you can access music that others have uploaded as well.  You can set up playlists or use playlists that others have shared.  It’s really where I think music is going.  I purchased a VIP membership last year in order to  help support the company.

The performance is great. It’s quick, downtime is pretty rare (though not unheard of) and improvements come pretty frequently.  If you’re not already using it, you should start!

Sleep– I think one of my unwritten New Year’s resolutions is to get more sleep.  It’s amazing how much better everything is when one just gets enough sleep.  It’s one of the first things to go when time gets tight, and I think it needs to have higher priority than that.

Photo of Fuzzball, our new kitten

The Fuzz

The Fuzz– Our new cat is pretty awesome.  Even though he tends to start fights with Bumblecat, he’s pretty darn cute and hopefully he’ll calm down some as he gets older and he won’t get himself into trouble as much.

Running

I started running early this year, as I had signed up for a 5k race in April in a fit of  joiner-ism and wanted to finish it without completely embarrassing myself.  After the race itself, in April, I thought I would stop running- it’s fairly high impact exercise, and I could burn calories other ways, so why keep on with something like that when I could bike or walk or do the elliptical or the arc trainer!

So I didn’t run for a while.  I did a lot of walking and so on through the late spring and summer.  But late in the summer, on a hot and humid day, I decided to go for a run.

And you know what?  I love running.

It’s hard, and it can hurt and I’m not good at it.  I get horribly sweaty and I jiggle.  But I love it.  No other exercise seems to give me quite the same satisfaction as a good hard long run.   I feel exhilarated afterward.  I feel like I’ve accomplished something.  It seems to chill me out.

I signed up for another 5k race in October, and was 4 minutes faster than my April time.  I’m a lot faster already than I was when I started- I’ve gone from a 13 minute mile to a 9:30 mile.  Not superhero- or athlete- fast, but pretty fast for me!  I’ve been running 8k regularly at the gym (on the days I do weights, with cross-training and yoga on other days).  I’m thinking about building up to a 10k race at some point next year.

So I guess I’m a runner, then.  Weird.

I’m a dual citizen!

So on October 7, I became a citizen of Canada.  The ceremony was at 1:15PM at the Citizenship and Immigration office in Kitchener- they have a citizenship court there, actually the same building where I took my citizenship test.  When I arrived (along with my husband, and my friend Carrie), a clerk checked me in, took my Permanent Resident card away (it was weird to give that up after basically guarding it with my life for 3 years) and gave me some booklets about Canada to take.

We went into the court itself and sat down- there were a good number of people there. They schedule the ceremonies for 45 new citizens at a time, but there were 49 of us there, with guests.  Once we were all checked in and seated, the clerk walked us through how the process would go.  All through this, the flat-screen tvs in the room were playing one of those montages of images of Canada.  Eventually, everything was set to go and the clerk had us rise for the judge to enter.

My ceremony was presided over by Judge Sharon Robertson, a former educator.

Sharon Robertson - Philip Walker, for the Waterloo Region Record

She gave a speech, telling us about some of her background and talking about the importance of the occasion and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.  Then she administered the oath, which we took in English, and French.  A representative from the MP of the area spoke and gave out little cards of congratulations.  Then each new citizen was called up to get their citizenship certificate, shake hands with the judge, and sign the oath paperwork.

There were people from 20 different countries at my ceremony, including Northern Ireland, England, Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Colombia, Mexico, USA, Romania, Nigeria, China, Netherlands, Germany, India, Albania, I think Turkey, and a couple of others that I don’t remember.

After the certificate presentation was over, we all sang O Canada, our first time singing the anthem as Canadians.   Soon after that, we were finished.

I'm so Canadian!

After the ceremony, I had to go straight down to the passport office, because I’m travelling out of country soon, so I needed a passport right away in order to get back in. A bunch of others from my ceremony did the same thing.  I’m a proper Canadian now!

Once I got back to work, I found out my coworkers had done this to my desk.

Decorated Desk

Thanks, coworkers!

Hooray for Canada!  For people curious, I am a US citizen by birth and am retaining that citizenship as well.

Approved!


I got the letter yesterday. I passed the test! My application for Canadian Citizenship is approved!

My Citizenship Ceremony and oath are happening on October 7, at the Citizenship and Immigration office in Kitchener.  I’ll have to head back to work afterward, and then to a show in the evening, but I’m sure I’ll get a good chance to celebrate.

This does mean I’ll be allowed to vote in the upcoming Municipal election! I’m excited.

Citizenship Test

I took my Canadian Citizenship test yesterday. The scheduled time for the test was 3PM, so I left work at about half past 2 to walk up to the Citizenship and Immigration office and be there in plenty of time.

I neglected to check the address on my paperwork before I went- I went up to 29 Duke, which is where the letter came from, and the office that I’ve been to before, but citizenship tests are held at 15 Duke.  So I was confused for a few when I was faced with a locked door and an hours sign saying that the office was closed on Wednesdays.  I figured it out momentarily after a closer read of my letter.

Once inside, there was a small waiting room, attached to a small room with a desk and two CIC people who were asking questions of the test attendees.  They called us in one by one, and we went in there, and were asked to present various paperwork, and they asked a couple questions, basically just getting a quick assessment of our grasp of English (French would have been fine too of course, but there didn’t seem to be any French speakers at my test).

We had to show our passports and landing documents and various other things.  The lady had my application there, and mentioned that I had a lot of vacations to the States- while looking through my passport for stamps. My passport is pretty much never stamped- I got stamped once on my very first trip to Canada, and once each for my Study Permit and my Permanent Residence, and that’s it.  Plus, now that I use a Nexus card, I almost never have to show my passport at all when I cross the border.

Once they were satisfied with my paperwork and english, they gave me an answer sheet- basically a photocopied legal-size sheet with numbering to 20, and A B C D after each number.  I was told to go sit in the next room (the citizenship court room) and find a chair with a clipboard, sit, and sign my sheet.

After I sat, I could sort of hear the test-writers coming in after me going through their questions/paperwork stuff.  One woman really was struggling with English and was definitely flustered and nervous, but she did fine enough in the end.

Once we were all in the room and sitting down with our clipboards, they started the test.  They handed out different colored folders, with a few pages inside that held the questions.  There were two mandatory ones (questions that you have to get correct in order to pass) and a set of 3 questions where getting one of the three correct was mandatory.

I think I did fine.  I definitely remember feeling like I got one of the questions wrong, but at this point, I can’t remember at all what the question was.  After we finished, we just turned in our papers and test folders, and that was that.

They don’t let you know right away if you’ve passed, which I found a little frustrating.  I’ll get a letter in 4-6 weeks with my results, and if I’ve satisfied all the requirements, that letter will have notice of when the oath ceremony will be.  I hope that it will be before the next municipal election, so that I can vote right away!

Citizenship application status

From the CIC website:

We received your application for Canadian citizenship (grant of citizenship) on August 19, 2009.

We sent you a letter acknowledging receipt of your application(s), and a study book called A Look at Canada on August 19, 2009. Please consider delays in mail delivery before contacting us.

We started processing your application on May 3, 2010.

Your file was transferred to the Kitchener CIC office on July 28, 2010. The Kitchener CIC office will contact you if additional information is required. The Kitchener CIC office will contact you regarding your citizenship test once all the necessary checks on your file are complete.

Yay!

Weekend update

No Penelopiad rehearsal this weekend, though I did get to see a number of the cast and crew yesterday at the movies and then at a party later on in the evening.

This being a long weekend and with me having the Friday off work as well, it was different enough that I didn’t quite miss being at the theatre in Elmira for Taming of the Shrew.

My work office is moving this weekend, as of Tuesday we’ll be located in the Lang Tannery building. I’m excited about the new space! I hope the transition is extra smooth, too- I have lots of things to get done in the next few weeks!

Star Wars: In Concert

I got to sing for the final show of the Star Wars: In Concert US/Canada tour, yesterday. It was pretty awesome! The show itself was amazing, the production staff were efficient and helpful, and the facility (the John Lebatt Centre in London) was nice as well. We got to meet Anthony Daniels, who hosts the show, which was really cool.  I got a bad phone photo of my performer credentials (they used stickers rather than lanyards for the choir which was nice, you could keep your pass on without having to have it visible from the audience or wearing something around your neck)-

Star Wars performer credentials

Overall, it was a really nice experience, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat, even if it did mean I was running myself ragged this past weekend with the closing of Ten Bare Toes‘ production of  Taming of the Shrew, as well as rehearsal and shows for Star Wars.  I was able to miss Penelopiad rehearsal on Sunday, which allowed for some much-needed rest.

Speaking of Taming of the Shrew– what a great experience that was.  Though I was building costumes some time ago, I didn’t really get to interact with the cast and crew much until the run.  Easy to see even in that short time what a great group of people were working on the show.  The show itself (I never did get to see a full run of it, I did catch bits and pieces) was very well received. and everyone did an amazing job. I think it was a great opportunity for everyone to learn and grow as well.  (I definitely got to hone my quick-change skills!) I had a fantastic time, and will miss everyone.

This week, I’m trying to catch up on things that were postponed and put off while I was so busy with rehearsals and shows- funny how being down to three rehearsals and one lesson a week is awesome when you’ve had a few weeks with every night booked.

The Penelopiad

I’ve been working on an amazing show over the past few weeks: The Penelopiad, by Margaret Atwood.  I’m assistant stage manager for the production.  It’s a very powerful play, though maybe not the most uplifting piece.  Our production with KWLT is the Canadian amateur premiere, which is exciting.

The cast is 13 women, which creates a really interesting dynamic.  Rehearsals so far have been fun, despite the sometimes draining subject matter. The actresses working on the show are amazing.

I’m looking forward to the coming weeks as things start to really gel.  The production goes up in September.  Keep an eye out for ticket information as it becomes available!