Since I have not posted here in two months, I thought I would start with a little update and housekeeping note. I have another post almost ready to publish so it won’t be two months before you hear from me again.
First and always, I want to thank my paying subscribers who keep sending me money despite my irregular output. There is no doubt in my mind that you are not getting your money’s worth. The last few months have been challenging from a writing perspective: I have been sick since mid-October with a succession of colds and flus. In November I passed a small kidney stone. Early in December I dislocated a rib, which was incredibly painful (way worse than the kidney stone). All this while interviewing, writing exams and sending resumes for jobs. It’s been a tough run and I am really grateful for your support.
In September, I launched a second newsletter titled “Zoned Out: warm takes about municipal politics in Ottawa.” This has given me an outlet for my political thinking since I left the City. You can find it here if you haven’t already:
In October, we had a municipal election in Ottawa. This term, the municipal election took a personal turn when people on Twitter and Reddit decided to make my personal relationship a corruption issue. As you may know, I used to work for Glen Gower, the City Councillor for Stittsville. I left my position in 2020 to go work for a different Councillor until I lost that job in August 2022. Glen and I are now in a relationship and live together, a fact that is private but not secret. Someone took it upon themselves to root out corruption where it didn’t exist, suggesting that our relationship started while he was still my employer (it didn’t) and that it was an affair (it wasn’t). Information about my private life and work history was shared on social media platforms, it was even suggested that I had been shuffled to a different office to hide sexual misconduct. It was scary. I was interviewing for a job with the CBC (the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) and a job at the Supreme Court of Canada at the time and both opportunities fell through with no explanation or follow-up. I will never know whether the social media smear campaign compromised my employment opportunities. I have more to write about this, but in the context of this housekeeping note, I had to put my newsletter archives behind a paywall to keep them safe from misuse. My posts are now available for free for a week after publication. After a week, they become paywalled. Since I have just enough paying subscribers to know them all by name, it feels manageable.
I am putting the finishing touches on a post about some tough personal stuff I went through in September/October. You may be tired of reading about my personal struggles and the lessons I learn along the way, or maybe that’s why you subscribe. The challenge with writing about parenting and family life is that when your personal life is a dumpster fire, your newsletter reflects it. I sat down this morning to finish my post and I felt my throat tightening. Writing about all the painful stuff seems to be migrating from a place of “healing” to “triggering” in my body. I’m curious to see where this will lead my writing. Don’t worry: I won’t write things that make me miserable! But I will find angles that support my healing journey and that’s where the curiosity lies.
After 4 months of job search, I finally found work! I’m starting my new job at the National Capital Commission (NCC) in Ottawa on January 9. I will be working in Internal Communications. This is a new field for me and I’m a little apprehensive about starting another career from scratch at 49, but communications does feel like a good fit. The last 4 months of unemployment were in equal part restful, scary and depressing. It’s time for me to saddle up again.
Ok, back to finishing that other post now! Have a nice day everyone!