Poll #1092771
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

For Thanksgiving, you will be...

found via dan4th:

The Canadian dollar reached parity with the U.S. greenback on Thursday for the first time in almost 31 years, capping a spectacular run that has seen it rise 62 per cent since 2002. The loonie briefly reached $1.0003 US on foreign-exchange markets shortly before 11 a.m. ET, the Bank of Canada said. The currency spent much of the rest of the day flirting with parity — at one point trading at $1.0006 — before closing at 99.87 cents US, up 1.37 cents from Wednesday's Bank of Canada close. full article

I feel the need to say: I called it.

For years now, the Canadian dollar has been growing stronger while the U.S. dollar has been growing weaker, with the U.S. Dollar dollar falling as low as C$1.0555 yesterday. Long gone are the days when traveling from the United States to Canada felt like winning the lottery in the currency exchange.

With the slump in stock prices and the now overtly worried fed things don't look to well for the United States. Add in the Chinese using threats of liquidating their U.S. debt holdings to ward off trade sanctions, I see no reason to believe that this trend will not continue. The Chinese threat, even if never acted on, demonstrates effectively the direness of the financial situation in the United States after almost 7 years of Bush's borrow and spend policies.

My prediction: Within the next 6 months, the Canadian dollar will surpass the U.S. dollar.

This photograph was taken about a little over an hour before I left Saint Thomas for London — after the hair fire incident. The candles in the photo are the ones that my hair was caught with. The robe I'm wearing in the photo is the inexpensive article of clothing I lost on my journey back to Boston.


photo by goldmourn

gryffyn gave goldmourn and me a ride up to London, where I caught the bus back to Boston. In short order I screwed up boarding the bus and spilt my entire cup of coffee (a lot of it going on my skirt).

However, things seemed to go a bit better until we reached the border. Compared to the security personal at the Canadian border, the Americans are fascist assholes. Someone in front of me put his hands in his pocket while waiting for the border guard to confirm his identification, for which he received the threat: "WE'RE NOT PLAYING GAMES! DO YOU WANT TO GO TO JAIL RIGHT NOW?". His was hardly atypical treatment. Greyhound had scheduled 15 minutes to cross the border. However it took us over an hour to get through security, and there was no one ahead of us. The imagery reminded me more of the check points in the old Soviet Bloc rather than something I'd hope to expect from the United States. How times change.

Luckily the hold up at the border didn't cause me to miss my connection at Syracuse. Other than losing an inexpensive article of clothing, the rest of the trip went smoothly — I walked out of the bus station the exact moment purpleglitter was pulling into the parking lot.

-----

I didn't do my normal voice post updates during this trip, because the entire LiveJournal voice post system was down the entire trip.

I left Missouri in February, 1994. I had been living in my car in Columbia, and suddenly I realized "I'm living in my car, why the fuck am I still in Missouri?". My first stop was Terra Haute, Indiana. I had almost gone to college there and wanted to see what my life would have been like if I had.

The only night I spent there, I met Andrea at a coffee house. Andrea was 29 years old and on SSI. Her mother had power of attorney and controlled her finances. The night I met her in that nameless coffee shop, she asked me "Do you want to go to Boston?". I had been planning to make my way down to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, but I figured what the hell and replied, "Yes".

The biggest problem with our trip was financing. I had little in the way of funds and Andrea couldn't access hers without her mother's permission. Her mom would never consent to a haphazardly planned trip across the country, so we came up with a plan. I met her mom, and Andrea told her that I was a nice Jewish girl that wanted to go tour the Jewish History museums on the east coast. I did as little talking as possible, worrying that my voice could give me away. To my amazement, her mother bought the story and gave her $650. We left.

At this point the plan was to go to Boston, then head up through Canada and then down the west coast. It was an ambitious plan in a 12 year old 1982 Buick LeSaber. But, I had nothing to lose, so what the hell?

Our first stop was Indianapolis. Nothing very interesting happened there. In fact, we were pretty much bored to tears. Neither of us knowing anyone or even a good place to start looking for interesting people lead to us pretty much not doing much.

Next stop was Cincinnati. Apart from almost getting killed a couple of times, it was about as interesting as Indianapolis. We decided to make the rest of the trip to Boston in one go.

Unfortunately, we didn't make it all the way to Boston as easily as we had hoped. My car broke down in Pennsylvania crossing the Appalachians. We were near the top of a nameless mountain, and pushed the car down to some nameless town. There was a mechanic in that town who was very kind and noted the low-cash situation we were in. He offered to replace the coolant system thermostat for just the cost of parts, which was $40.

We spent the night in the town, then headed on our way. By the time we got to Boston, the car was having problems again. It would only go so far before it overheated, but we completed the trip.

One of the first things I saw upon arriving to Boston was a homeless man being chased out of a Dunkin' Donuts with a broom. I took that as a bad omen.

To save money on parking, we decided to park the car in the outskirts of town where it would be easier to find a spot. Instead, we ended up spending the first night in Roxbury as the car refused to travel only a mile or so at a go. The second night, we stayed on the floor of a ratty apartment of some slight creepy guys Andrea had just met. The third night, we stayed in one of the back alleys of Central Square.

By this time, I was ready to leave Boston. Andrea had just wasted around $60 on new boots while I was struggling to deal with the parking situation. I was very worried that I might lose my car. I told her that I was leaving Boston and she had two choices: come with me or get her stuff out of my car. She refused to do either, so I ended up leaving Boston with a good deal of her stuff.

My car was doing quite badly at this point, and could not go over 40mph. I got pulled over on the Mass Pike around Framingham for going too slow and was told to take another route. I took Route 9 from that point to Northampton. The cooling system was acting up during the trip as well, and I had to make frequent stops. I ended up spending the night on the side of the road somewhere along Route 9 in Central Massachusetts.

After waking up, I noted I needed gas. I had a black cloth skirt on with a black button down shirt with a high collar. I hadn't had access to bathroom facilities, so my face was quite stubbly. I pulled up to the gas station and pumped the gas. When I attempted to pay, the attend said "It's free for the church, Father." Figuring at that point that I could use free gas more than the church, I went with along it.

After limping the rest of the way to Northampton, my car finally died in the parking lot behind the Haymarket my second day in town. A blizzard hit that night, a snow emergency was declared, and my car was towed.

The following morning Liz, who I had just met the night of the blizzard, used her AAA membership to have my car towed from the tow lot to E lot at UMass in Amherst. A semester parking pass for E lot cost only $10 at that point and wasn't restricted to students, so I was able to have my car parked legally until the end of the semester. My car was my home until June, by which time it had decayed significantly and was quickly towed.

Tickets are confirmed and I leave Thursday for St. Thomas. It will be an overnight bus trip, and I arrive in St. Thomas on Friday morning. I'm going to be spending a week visiting goldmourn, who's birthday it is today (happy birthday to you). If I'm lucky I might get to see lovecraftienne over the weekend. I haven't left the United States in over a decade, I'm very excited.

I fell into a deep depression last night. I did what I often do when I spiral into a deep depression: pour myself a sizable drink and simply fail to drink any more than a few sips of it. It's a waste of perfectly good alcohol, but at least it means I'm unlikely to become an alcoholic.

I talked to goldmourn on the phone a little past midnight, and that cheered me up a bit. I was still on the depressed side of things, but not in the dark pit I had been before the call. I can't wait to visit her up in Ontario at the end of next month. Judging from the pictures she posts in her journal, the area she lives in is amazingly beautiful with plenty of woods and trail for walking.

The recent bust of a large terrorist cell in Ontario is being used as "proof" that the United States government needs to further crack down on security and become even more invasive. However, it actually proves just the opposite. While Canada's legal system might not be perfect in regards to civil liberties, Canada does not have anything as Orwellian as the PATRIOT Act. Yet, Canadian law enforcement was still able to break apart a major terrorist plot. The bust shows that civil liberties do not have to be sacrificed to combat terrorism.

Waking up and posting in the middle of the night I am after being sick most of the day. Although I tend to love the rain, I think the cold steady drizzle finally got me.

-----

Tomorrow I see my therapist for the first time in 5 weeks. There will be a two month gap coming up when I go to Ontario for July and she is on vacation for August. At this point, the gaps do not bother me. I seem to get along just fine without therapy, and am still questioning the point of even continuing it.

My skepticism about therapy at this point has nothing to do with my current therapist, who is the best that I've found to date. My skepticism is simply due to the fact my doubt that the asymmetrical relationship offered by therapy is able to provide me with benefit at this point.

I have many people in my life that I'm on a more even standing with whom I can talk freely with, and I trust their advice and insight more simply because we have two-sided relationships. I know them more. I know their biases, backgrounds, and beliefs. I know them at all, in fact. The vary nature of the relationship with a therapist prevents that level of trust and understanding.

The one-sidedness of the relationship with a therapist can be incredibly useful for some people in some situations, and I've found it helpful at points in the past. However, for me here and now, I don't think it's working. It may be time to move on.

-----

Now I go back to bed.

gacked from kyrene:

How Spoiled Are You?

( long survey )

Yesterday in therapy we again discussed the possibility of ending therapy. I'm going next week, but the future of the endeavor is in strong doubt. The week following next my appointment my therapist will be on vaction and the two weeks following that I will be in Missouri visiting my family. I'll be in Ontario virtually the entire month of July and my therapist is taking the entire month of August off. That's a lot of time without therapy, and with me already very much wondering if therapy is worth it, the situation does not bode well for continuance.

Feeling much better this morning, hopefully that will last through the day.
I didn't go to therapy yesterday.
I was too depressed, and I've lost trust with my therapist lately.
I don't want to go if I'm in too low of a state, because I don't want to risk being hospitalized.
If I'm in a "I don't care" mindset, I'm less likely to check my words.
Therefore, I'm more likely to get myself in trouble.

-----

This summer I may be visiting goldmourn for nearly a month.
I'm very excited about seeing her.
We've never met in real life, but we've known each other online for years.
She's called me and helped me when I've been in the asylum.
She is someone I can really talk to.
I think we will have a good and interesting time.
I would also like to try to make it to the wedding of lovecraftienne and persephoneplace
lovecraftienne talked to me about a month ago about the concept, but I didn't yet know if I'd go.
Another two people I'd like to meet in real life.
If all goes well...
Canada here I come.

gacked from kaiaroo:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Scientists said Thursday that marijuana appears to promote the development of new brain cells in rats and have anti-anxiety and anti-depressant effects, a finding that could have an impact on the national debate over medical uses of the drug. Other illegal and legal drugs, including opiates, alcohol, nicotine and cocaine, have been shown to suppress the formation of new brain cells when used chronically, but marijuana's effect on that process was uncertain. Now, a team led by Xia Zhang of the department of psychiatry at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon may have found evidence the drug spurs new brain cells to form in a region of the brain called the hippocampus, and this in turn reduces anxiety and depression. full story

So much for the killing brain cells argument.