Category: Life

I was talking last week with someone who told me that consultants must deal extremely well with ambiguity. They test for this skill set when hiring.

I guess I won’t ever become a consultant. (One of my colleagues thinks I’d be a great consultant because I am really good at drafting plans and telling other people the way they should do things. She’s kidding and I’m not going anywhere. But I do draft a mean plan and I’m often right about most things. ;))

Why is consulting not in my future? Well the suits for one, but the real reason is because I dislike ambiguity.

I like the fact that there’s a meeting every week at the same time and in the same place. I like the fact that I bring a chart to the meeting. Then, I like taking the chart back to my office and updating it so it’s current. This way everyone knows what’s going on. It’s all there on my colour-coded chart.

I don’t need to schedule every moment of a holiday — I book in ample free time on another one of my colour-coded charts 😉 — but I do like to research and plan the key places to visit and make at least one restaurant reservation in advance. I also like to research hotels more than most people. (I am actually a delightful travel companion — really.)

I plan what I am going to wear the next day the night before. Okay, not on weekends, but virtually every work day. I hate going to sleep with any doubt about the pants I want to wear being clean.

I could go on. I have many more examples, but I am not liking where this post is going. I am sounding very rigid. Set in my ways. Boring, even.

In fact, some people would say that I am actually very spontaneous and fun-loving. And yeah, I love to have a good time and to do things sometimes on the spur of the moment. But spur of the moment is not my default state. However, fun is — so that seems to make up for my — ahem — tendencies.

I was introduced this way recently: “This is my friend Christine. She has a blog and she’s very funny.”

I took no offense to this introduction. In fact, it’s flattering. I am funny and I try to write about things that amuse me. (And maybe the three of you.)

But some things are just not funny. Take rotten onions, for example.

I enjoy living in a mixed income area and I like the multicultural mix. (Not just funny, but progressive, too.) But the lack of food options — okay, I’ll say it: high-end food options — is irritating. (I know, I know, you don’t have to say it. Middle-class problems.)

I was grocery shopping this weekend near my home and all of the onions in the bins were rotten, or very close to that state. There were bugs swarming around them.

This was in a new supermarket in a traditionally low-income neighbourhood (part of the gentrification that I am participating in). The store is pretty much the only place within easy walking distance. (I could say something progressive here about not owning a car and my love of not burning fossil fuels, but frankly I was one of those car people for many years and I liked it very much. It certainly made shopping easier. I miss Costco.)

But back to the onions. They were gross. Granted, most of the produce was fine, but not spectacular. The oranges had seen fresher days. And some of the peppers were a bit tired.

While I enjoy the rows of international food products and buy all kinds of things just to try out. (Usually with tasty results.) The overall selection is less than impressive. No blue cheese or fresh cold cuts and fancy meats, for example. None of those soups that I like in the mason jars, garlic paste or pate.

But this is fine. I can go to the gourmet food market on my way home from work for my fancy food items. I get that these products won’t sell there. But onions sell.

And I wanted one to be sold to me for my salad tonight. But nope. Instead I got some green onions which were a little wilted but fine.

So I gathered my things and walked home. Thinking along the way that I could buy a car to go shopping farther afield. (The fact that I am very lucky and can afford a car, but choose not to have one, was not lost in me.)

Now I am wondering if I should write to the manager about the lack of onion in my diet this week. Or if I (a damn lucky gal with no worries about how much I have to spend on food) should just suck it up.