More talk of journalism

I just want to write. Ideally, I want to write in a way that yields money so that I can continue to write instead of doing things like mixing hiballs or pulling shots of espresso. School has ended and instead of putting my nose to a grindstone (AKA MacBook screen) searching for jobs, I’ve sort of just been reveling in this newfound existence of mine.

This is the envelope that my first freelance checque came in. I will remember it always, for its crumples and tears.

I’ve now conquered four years of post-secondary. Much of that schooling took place while I had two jobs. Now, I’m unemployed and out of school for the first time since getting my first real-ish job at the Saddledome when I was 15.


During this in-between time, I’m trying to responsible with my budgeting. Part of me is whispering “take advantage of these precious days and party!” but that part is only getting moderate attention. The other part is being more reasonable, but is also hungry. That part convinced me to buy ingredients to make pasta and challah from scratch and I fully intend to fulfill that desire sometime this week…or next.

This is the last slice of a quiche that was not only fun to make, but it provided much-needed sustenance throughout a ridiculously busy week at the Reflector.

As an unemployed person I’m also trying to use my increased downtime to my benefit. For example, I am spending even more time on Twitter and yesterday, through a fortunate chain of events and Googling skills, I won a pair of tickets to see Body Worlds at the Telus World of Science. Only days ago I’d said aloud how much I wanted to go see the absurd plastinated corpses, so I was really very pleased with my tweeting skills.

Risotto is actually an awesome budget food because you can pretty much throw any stir-fry or soup-friendly ingredients in and end up with deliciousness. Unfortunately the price of the rice is a little steep here.

So, uh, maybe that’s the only real accomplishment that I have made since writing my last exam on Saturday. But I have also been cooking more frequently and often deliciously. Last night I had a girls’ night at my place to give a send-off to my friend Nori who is moving west to go do some journalism. We kept the food pretty simple, and it was delicious.

Bread baking and unemployment go together well, especially because so many of the recipes I have take about six hours of commitment to accomplish.

I didn’t take any photos. Shame, I know. But I’ve been trying to take some simpler photos throughout the week in order to add some content to these totally recipeless journal-style blog posts. That’s good for something, right?

I was so inspired by the previous quiche that I decided to make another. I only had three eggs left and one of them fissured in the carton so I did what I could to increase the volume of this little pie. It wasn't nearly as satisfying as the first, but it was a good snack.