Home, sweet home

Je déguste avec plaisir ma première soirée tranquille à la maison de la semaine. Eh oui, petit détour à Trois-Rivières, soirées « business » à ne plus en finir, et enfin une soirée à moi. Je suis arrivée vers 20h ce soir, qui est de bonne heure selon les nouvelles normes au bureau. J’en profite, toujours pressée, pour mettre à jour ce cybercarnet, rapidement et brièvement, avant de me lancer dans la pratique de Bach. Jesu, joy of man's desiring. Y a-t-il une mélodie plus belle avec autant de simplicité?

Prise de parole

La fin de semaine passée en était une d'amour, de la St-Valentin bien sûr, et surtout des mots. Vendredi, c'était au tour des anglophones de raconter leurs histoires. Une soirée plutôt folklorique qui a commencé très en retard, à mon grand chagrin car pour moi c'est un manque de respect.

Samedi, j'ai ajouté ma voix aux 150 000 personnes qui ont marché pour la paix sous un ciel bleu glacial. Un engagement, un espoir et surtout un message très, très clair : non à la guerre.

Dimanche c'était au tour des francophones de parler d'amour et de poésie dans le cadre du festival Voix d'Amériques. Encore, un message contre la guerre, dans toute son absurdité, a été lancé. Je me suis rendue compte encore une fois que c'est un grand privilège que j'ai de parler le français, de voir le monde de cette façon, de vivre dans l'âme de cette langue.

Peace - Paix - Paz

2003-02-15

Please come demonstrate for peace - Venez afficher vos couleurs - La paz te necesita

Two weeks later

Ok, things are still tough, but I can talk about something other than problems at work. And given how positive many of my former co-workers are when they drop by to sign papers or pick up stuff, it's not all bad. Life does indeed go on.

And lest some readers think that I am not blogging much due to work stress, well, actually it has more to do with being busy and needing to do non-writing things. For instance, after about a two-year break, I finally picked up my guitar again. I started to miss it when I was in Spain, and it was a pleasure to take it out of its case and tune it up.

Current obsession: Bach's Jesu, bleibet meine Freude. Just can't get it out of my head.

One week later

We're still surviving, one week after the layoffs. It's hard to say if things are really settling down, though, as we're expecting more changes, shuffling of personnel and responsibilities. It's a weird feeling.

This is exactly the kind of atmosphere I have always avoided. I was fortunate enough to have been spared the decline of a similar company I worked for many years ago. Spared, in fact, by my own devices since I saw what was coming and decided to find other work. It took two more years after that for the company to fold, a slow-motion death that took a lot out of the employees who watched the situation deteriorate each day.

So it's another Monday. We'll see what this week will have to say for itself.

Rough ride

February is off to a rocky start. This morning, we faced layoffs, among them longtime co-workers who had become friends somehow, against the odds. The secretary broke down in tears, alternately wiping her eyes and apologizing. T'as pas à avoir honte de ton coeur, d'avoir un coeur, de la compassion.

I have never been laid off, nor have I ever had to let anyone go. I hope I never do. But if my luck runs dry one day, I hope I face that challenge with humanity and humility.

Un mois !

Rabbit! There goes the first month of 2003, speeding away from February. How did that happen so fast?

As I turn the page of the calendar, I realize it's already been 4 weeks since I got back from vacation, and there are 11 more weeks to go before I have a single day off - Good Friday. Shouldn't they all be called that?