Jive Walkin

During my quick trip to Toronto, I promised myself I needed to be more active. Everyday since then, I practiced yoga first thing in the morning. Then later on during a day, I went outside for a walk. I even started to do some winter jogging if the temperature was above -5C. The various routes weren't particularly interesting because we're in Ottawa.

There was another blast of snow on Thursday night and into Friday. On my walk that was also a grocery run, I thought about how pedestrian unfriendly this city was. I've had a few near-accidents while crossing streets despite having the right of way. But Friday it was the snow that impeded my progress. Oh, a plow did clear out the sidewalk. But one or more street plows also came through, pushing thick dirty snow onto long stretches of the same sidewalk. All the car traffic also created large piles at every intersection making crossing them treacherous. All in all, it was a miserable trek even for an able-bodied person. On my way back, I saw an older gentleman in a wheelchair struggling to get to his bus-stop.

On Saturday, I headed to my relative to see if they have improved. That trip was also an exercise in delay and frustration. First, I spent 40 minutes waiting to buy some butter croissants ($4.50) from Art Is In. The reason: only 2 people were behind the counter handling 25-30 customers. Their baked goods might be ok (for Ottawa) but it wasn't good enough to tolerate poor service. During the wait, I chatted with someone and got some tips for other businesses. So hopefully I'll never have to visit here again.

Ottawa has been extending its O-Train LRT from Tunney's Pasture to Baseline. Digging up various existing sections of the old bus-only corridors created some minor re-routing. But this week-end, they were tearing down one of the old station. As my bus twisted and turned through a major detour, going down one street before doubling back on another one, I got a good look at the city. None of it was pretty: Carling, Woodroffe, Richmond, and every road in between, it was strip malls, heavy car traffic, and no street-level human presence.

Lunch at my relative was stir-fry, soup, and leftover Christmas chocolate. From some gossip, I discovered that my younger cousins and siblings earned much more than me. I was glad they were making bank, but since we work in the same field, I realized I was woefully underpaid. I've always known from salary negotiations (or the lack thereof) that I wasn't getting market value for my work. I'm winding down my career so it's a moot point now but to compare actual dollars and cents was shocking. Speaking of careers, I recently received a message from an old yoga acquaintance (we used to enjoy a post-practice croissant hang). They had left their office job to become a Yoga Therapist full-time. Their new vocation was less lucrative, but much more emotionally rewarding.