Going crazy over bus strike

It's been five days since the OC Transpo bus strike has started in Ottawa and quite frankly, I'm going a little crazy. I've been walking in circles in my apartment, neurotically adding more and more tinsel to my Christmas tree. We can barely see the green anymore.

The strike has got to end. I need to get out of the house and ride the bus again. I need to get to the places where I can consume, buy stuff I don't need, spend money on gifts people will never use. I need to see the familiar sight of parents trying to fit their baby's stroller in overcrowded bus; I need to read over someone's shoulder to see what they're typing on their Blackberry and hear the comforting sound of squealing tires and bus drivers shouting at the traffic.

No. Really, I want to get out of the house so that I can go to the Carleton University library and finaly take out a book I've been wanting to read for too long now: Disciplined Minds, by Jeff Schmidt. This book talks about how graduate schools turn their students from independent-thinkers to endoctrinated, employable workers. But I should be immuned to all this in journalism school right?

Anyways. I can't get to Carleton University and read Schmidt's book until the buses are back and running. So for now, I'm stuck in my over-heated, dry apartment, obsessing over my Christmas tree, checking every two hours if it needs more water. Yesterday, I hit a new low and watched Independence Day on Fox. I also cought up on three months of mail, which mainly consisted of letters from various charities asking me for money.

I gave money ONCE to the Breakfast Clubs of Canada last year and now, every charity in the country has my address. They even send you 'gifts' now, like Christmas cards and calendars, so you feel like a cheap bastard if you don't send them a check. And yes, I fell for it.

So today, while I was watching the fourth episode in a row of Family Guy, (which will always be second-best to the Simpsons) I decided to get off my ass and start this blog, which I've been meaning to do for a while now.

Why a bilingual blog? Because it's easier. Because for five years, I was immersed in the bilingual oasis that was the University of Ottawa, 'Canada's University' (I realize you might not know me enough yet to sense the irony in that last sentence, but we will get there). But most of all, because I'm a francophone studying journalism in English and sometimes, after a rough day, j'ai juste envie d'écrire en français tabarnac.