Another photo for the Hall of Shame – Since the Canadian Government has new laws about No Smiling on passport photos, I won’t have any problem because I’m not Canadian, but also because I already smiled all the allowed smiles you’re supposed to smile (excuse the redundant smile) for a document issued by the City of Laval.

You see, when I went to get my library card a couple of years ago, the lady put me in front of a polaroid, asked me to “smile… no, more… no, smile! no, more more more!”, so I gave her a HUGE STUPID smile for her to stop nagging me, thinking that she was going to say “not that big”. Well, I was wrong, she f* took the photo, the little witch. Now I have to carry this horrendous photo of myself and show it at the library every time I want to borrow a book. I’m seriously thinking of going to get a new one. I really have no shame showing this stuff to people here. Scary!

And for your information, here are the specs for the new photos on Canadian Passports. Check the “unacceptable” photos; I wonder if the neutral expression will really help. Anyone can just smile or frown their ass off and their expression will change too and “making it easier for security personnel to recognize travellers from their passports” will be obsolete. I really have to laugh at the way governments deal with security sometimes, but then again… what do I really know.

I’ve been rather scarce this week, mostly because I really don’t think there’s anything interesting going on in my life and well, I could discuss the current world events, but I don’t feel like to. My week has been kind of plain, like I said, except for my visit to the therapist on Tuesday, where she made me run, spin, breathe, hyperventilate, hold my breath… why you ask? Because she wants to expose me to all the physical sensations I have when I’m having a Panic attack, interesting!

So, that’s what I’ve been doing this week, “homework”. I’m also supposed to go out to places with a lot of people to see how my level of anxiety goes. I don’t suffer from agoraphobia YET, but if I didn’t put a stop to the panic/anxiety issues I was surely going to end up there. I’m learning a big deal with this cognitive therapy and one of the things I value the most is all the biological explanations for each symptom and the guarantee that nothing is going to happen to me, that I’m not going to go crazy, things like that. I don’t know how many of my readers are familiar with the Anxiety/Panic Disorder, so here’s a link where you can learn something if you’re interested.

Other than that, I’m here at home, taking care of little things, replying e-mails, writing letters to friends, the usual cleaning and still sending out CVs. Funny that I registered with Jobboom, so they send me options for jobs and today I received one from Urgel Bourgie, a funeral home… No, thanks… Not interested. I don’t go to such places unless it’s absolutely necessary; I associate them with pain, the pain I’ve gone through so many times, so I don’t think it would be wise to even think about getting a job there.

My plans for the weekend? I’m doing laundry today, so guess who’s going to be folding clothes? Moi, exactly. I’m probably heading for Omer DeSerres to get a few things and finally start putting my wedding photos on a nice layout, be a scrapbook or a simple album. I have enough scrapbooking supplies to start for now, all I want are eyelets and photo corners. And I think that’s pretty much it, unless the darling husband wants to do something else.

I want to thank Jaya, Kristin, Raye, Martie, Christine and Meg for offering me their help with the labels. I thought about costs and being the practical person I am, I decided to go and look for them at Staples and print them myself. I am now the proud owner of 480 nice and clear labels with my return address; Patrice’s office printer has been used and abused… I called that machine all the names you can imagine (Avery is good, but sometimes you have to tweak too much). When I have something in my head, I have to do it and do it fast, I guess that’s a good thing. Thanks again, everyone!