Category Archives: A Year of Re-Skilling

A Year of Re-Skilling

Random How-Tos Part 1

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Here are some how-tos I’ve picked up sporadically throughout my 31 years:

How to clean a ceramic teapot

Rinse the teapot with water. Dump in a bunch of baking soda. Wait 5 seconds, then wipe the teapot with a wet cloth, smooshing around the baking soda. It’ll be spotless, and without using any gross chemicals. This works for tea-stained and coffee-stained mugs/dishes too.

How to get your kids to read

Learned from my parents:

  1. read to them
  2. read in front of them
  3. take them to the library at least once a week so they can check out lots and lots of books
  4. don’t make them feel guilty about library late fees
  5. optional: give  gifts of books at Christmas time (especially on Christmas Eve to help calm excited nerves and get everyone to sleep)

How to get a job

Don’t wait for job postings. Think of what you might want to do, then:

  1. Google local people who do that job, then email them and ask if you can take them for lunch/coffee and ask some questions. If they don’t think you’re creepy, you will be top-of-mind when an opportunity arises. NOTE: this doesn’t work for freelance or entrepreneurial jobs. You are their future competition.
  2. Tell your friends and family you want to work in a specific area. Inevitably someone knows someone. Then: see #1 above.
  3. In the meantime, stalk job postings (all of them, not just the classifieds, and not just one website) and apply for anything you’re somewhat qualified for. One of my favourite jobs came from applying for an entry-level job — they saw my resume and skills, and hired me for the (better) job they hadn’t yet posted.

How to find your love partner

  1. Do what you like to do, whether it’s a dance class, political activism, a book club, a sports team, etc. You already have something in common with everyone you meet, so you’re halfway there. If there aren’t any date-able options in your activities, see #2 below.
  2. Tell your friends that you want to date new people. Tell them what you’re looking for. At the very least, you’ll have lots of dates as a result. In our 20s, my girlfriends and I hosted “Bring Your Own Stranger (BYOS)” events at a local bar. We handed out invitations to interesting single people we met in the weeks beforehand, and challenged friends and coworkers to bring their single friends. It was awesome.
  3. Have fun by yourself. I met Brock when I went to a gay friend’s birthday party. I did not expect any straight men to be there. And I was sick with a cold too. But I went because I knew it would be a fun party, and once I got there I found out the birthday boy had a present for me: a tall, straight, single man.

How to emergency-iron wrinkled clothes

Use a hot-air hair dryer. You can even do this while still wearing the item of clothing. Be careful not to stretch the fabric with your hand while drying, though, because the fabric will stay stretched-out until you wash it.

How to shave your legs

A friend told me this before she trained as an esthetician … perhaps she’s learned a better method since: use body lotion instead of shaving cream. You moisturize your skin while shaving.

Not much for 31 years! Post your own below so I can learn more, please.

A Year of Re-Skilling

The Slow Wedding

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At first I didn’t think our upcoming December 2011 wedding was suitable for my re-skilling blog. It’s not like I’ll be able to knit socks afterward.

But once we started brainstorming priorities and plans, I realized that weddings are just another example of how out of touch my generation has become with the essentials. Just as our food has become unnecessarily complicated, so too have weddings. Essentially, weddings are a celebration of love and union. They are a chance for family and friends to witness the exchange of vows/promises between two people in love. A wedding should be a celebration.

Instead (as I’ve learned after attending two bridal trade shows, perusing a few bridal magazines, and witnessing a number of friends plan their events), weddings have become elaborate, expensive, stressful affairs. If you let yourself get sucked into the wedding industry propaganda, you will easily find yourself spending hundreds or, more likely, thousands of dollars on a dress you’ll wear for one day. You will order a cake that costs more than any item of clothing I currently own. And you may even (like one friend-of-a-friend) find yourself wearing a tiny piece of jewellery that could easily put three people through university. Ludicrous. Clothes and jewellery aren’t priorities in my day-to-day life, so why would they be priorities for my wedding?

The expense is one thing. The stress is another. With all the elements of even a relatively simple wedding, a wedding can become an enormously complicated event. Building a house is nothing, compared to being the general contractor for an army of DJs, photographers, videographers, florists, hair stylists, make up artists, dress fitters and seamstresses, tailors, chefs and servers, a venue, the officiant … not to mention all the guest-politics that need to be considered.

Anyhoo, my point is that weddings have become ridiculous, and not at all like they could/should be. Just like our bread, our beverages, and many other aspects of our lives.

So Brock and I have invented a new movement: the slow wedding.

Our wedding priorities = good wine and no engagement ring.

Just like the slow food movement, our wedding will be as uncomplicated as possible. It will focus on what’s really important to us (family, friends and food) instead of all the elaborate baggage that we’re told to care about.

Instead of expensive clothes and an engagement ring (which aren’t important to us), we’ll put our money toward good food (ideally grown by ourselves and our fellow local, organic food producers) and good wine.

We will choose to support local, ethically-minded businesses in the spirit of slow money. (That means I get to go to the spa.)

Instead of stressing about guest lists, RSVPs and seating arrangements, we’re going to have a small ceremony followed by an open-house style reception, so we can celebrate and visit with our family and close friends.

A friend of ours is marrying us. We’ll pay another (photographer) friend to bring her camera along.

So there you are. We’ve begun a new movement and I can check off another basic skill learned this year: how to get married.