AuDN4T

Reflecting on the last two weeks. It was nice to have family visiting from Poland. Trying to show them our world here and how life is here. I know it can be a bit different – and that’s fine. The world is a diverse place. I think it’s also that little pride in the place you live in that you want to show off to family members (despite it being a bit chaotic at the moment)… not in a pretentious way… kind of like a parent being proud of their kids way? I think of how my friends are proud of the places they live in…. Regina or Kyiv. (I hate using the word proud because of the negative connotation it comes with the far right groups like proud boys and proud Ontario). What a weird world we live in right now.

It was definitely difficult navigating through downtown Toronto with 8 people in total; making sure no one got lost on the subway. Laying out the logistics of paying for subway fare. I’m glad they got to experience a bit of Chinatown and Korean BBQ…. definitely makes you feel like you’re in a big city but also walking into a world with different languages and diversity around you is not something you see everywhere. Trying to normalize that diversity.

Going to three different locations in a day in a short period of time felt a bit much for 3pm-9pm.

From a sensory standpoint, the aquarium was nice… though there was one point where there was audio that was a bit loud. I think if they have options to tune into on your phone, it might be a good option…. Do a playlist on Spotify? or another app? Trying to think of a creative way to implement this. some sort of QR code that provides a link to audio.

CN Tower is always a sight to see, though, the reno’s have definitely impacted the experience from a sensory standpoint. The first floor has carpet and some sort of acoustical ceiling design that absorbs the sound while the second floor has vinyl flooring that allows the sound to bounce off the ceiling, floor and walls. There is a noticeable 10dB variation. The pod is nice but not accessible for people with walking difficulties. There isn’t enough space for someone with fears of heights to back up. Noise levels to bounce around when people do change the garbage bins. It can get a bit congested because the core is the shape of a square while the walkway is a circle… it might get difficult if you carry a backpack with you; you might hit people with it.

Union Station… I still find it confusing to navigate after the reno. It feels like there’s large rooms separating the GO Transit area. I used to know the flow of it and now could not say how the layout is. You have this weird large room where you have the dark food court area, then you have a room or compartment of waiting areas, but I think there’s two? It’s not very intuitive.

Cycling back home was ok at first until it really started to rain. The bike share pedals didn’t really have any grip, there were a couple of times I was close to falling. Seeing people still have to work through the rain during the World Cup made you really understand it got complex for them in the rain. I think about the people cleaning the portopotty and realize how it was difficult to see at night. I also think about how we protect them from an infection control standpoint being exposed to various bodily fluids. That’s not really something that is covered in OHSA. I’m not sure if there are any standards for outdoor washroom facilities; especially protecting workers maintaining them. You can provide them with PPE but there’s also the issue of cross contamination and knowing how to don/doff the PPE. How can we make this work more easier for them? I wonder how heavy the vacuum equipment is…. I also think about dry cleaners (not that I passed by one on the way home, but it was something that just popped into my head). Exposure to the chemicals used and ways we can reduce pollutants without removing the businesses; there likely has to be a solution on how to do this in a more safer manner (for humans, animals and environment).

The following day, I was pooped. I don’t understand why these activities just drain me.

The incident within the parking lot was a lot. Having AL yell about the apartment being messy prior to that exhausted me further. I don’t know. I felt numb? I understood we needed to do something. I know we had to call 911. But I was exhausted, I had no feeling? I just disassociated? And the need to release that numbness was to just drink. I don’t know why coping with alcohol is what makes things easier? Leading up to going into the store, things were too much. But I still know my limit. I know it’s a hard stop on 2 or 3.

I really wanted to go to the Crimean Tatar Flag event. It was not happening with everything. Having menstrual cramps kicked my butt. I don’t get why they get more intense during burnout, but this seems to be an issue. They get more intense and Advil doesn’t seem to help.

I’ve been a bit sassy with politics – but the issue is that Ontario politicians represent us and don’t do anything to really serve us. They are civil servants after all and only serve themselves. They don’t even do the bare minimum. They don’t scrape the bare minimum. They take a miniscule droplet and consider it the bare minimum. 0.00000000001 ppb of work when it should be 1,000,000,000,000 ppm.

With respect to the whole Nawrocki / Zelenskyj situation – Nawrocki really shit the bed on this. He has not done anything to bring any reconciliation between Ukrainians and Poles but rather served a platter to putin. A historical oppressor cannot cry about being oppressed when the oppressed fight back. The oppressor still has historical armies that are referenced with pride but at the thought of their neighbour referencing their partisan army, they are villainized. Therefore, the oppressor continues to oppress by only seeing their side of history and not the entire history. The oppressor (Poland) also sides with the other oppressor (russia), an oppressor that historically oppressed the other oppressor (Poland). Is that how Poland would like to continue with history… where the general muscovite population currently protests against Great Britain for providing military equipment to Ukraine for defense and not their own kremlin government following attacks on their city? You can’t argue with the illogicals. I think I’ll just call them that from now on – the illogicals. My grade 10 english teacher can cringe all she wants – find a better word if you want. Could just settle for homo sovieticus…. this works for Nawrocki and his friends too.