Today I went to another Wood Buffalo Pride letter-writing session.

Alberta pushed through Bill 9, which was the reason for the additional writing session.

It was -37C this evening, and I'd kind of thought about staying home and writing letters at home instead. But I knew that if I did that, I wouldn't actually write anything. So I went. There were a few other people there, not a whole lot but more than I expected.

I ended up writing 3 letters.

Hopefully I will have the energy to make a more detailed/informative post at some point about all this. And, honestly, my apologies for all the Alberta Politics posts lately. But it's all making me very angry and so on. So.

Fortunately I have a bunch of more lighthearted events I'll be going to over the next couple of weeks, but damn. Things have been less than ideal.

+ An acquaintance loaned me a fountain pen so I could try it out. I was interested but a little hesitant, because my experience with Fancypants Pens up to this point hasn't been great (though admittedly previous experience was limited to glass dip pens. And also calligraphy pens in elementary school art class). This one's quite nice, though. It's a Pilot Metropolitan and I might end up getting one for myself. Though, will need more practice - my writing is even uglier and more illegible with this thing than it was with the cheap-ass Bic rollerballs I use most of the time. If I get one of my own, it'll probably be something I use for both writing and drawing. Maybe. Probably not for fic though.

+ I will confess though, part of my interest in fountain pens (aside from this acquaintance's enthusiasm about them, which is kind of cute) is the wide variety of fancy inks out there. So pretty! So stylish! You can even get shimmery purple ones! Amazing.

+ It was absolutely miserable out yesterday. I took a look at the weather in the morning and it was -38C after windchill. Eew. A lot of events in town were cancelled because it was so cold - though that isn't just us, apparently several other cities had to cancel their Santa Claus parades and whatnot as well. Looks like we'll be dealing with this for a while. The transit stop that I use after work doesn't have a bus shelter any more, so it's going to be a very cold week.

+ The faucet on my sink has a crack in it and is going to need to be replaced. This is a terrible time for it, partly because this time of year is busy in general and also because I will not be able to take any time off work until mid-January because my coworker is leaving very soon for a month (there are only two of us in my department), so if I have to get somebody in to change it out it could be an issue. A cursory search tells me that this kind of thing can theoretically be handled as a DIY; my father is coming over this afternoon to take a look at it. Hopefully he can fix it (or maybe he knows a guy who can). Aughhh.

+ Wood Buffalo Pride is hosting another letter-writing session later this week in response to the UCP's Bill 9. I'm 50/50 on whether I'll go. I already wrote to Danielle Smith and my MLA, and I doubt a second letter to either of them would have an effect. But I've been kind of considering writing to other MLAs, not from my area, who have been objecting to Bill 9, thanking them for that and encouraging them to continue. I'm thinking mainly of Janis Irwin, who has been very outspoken against it and has been getting so much shit in response (though she tends to piss off conservatives on the regular no matter what, on account of being 1. an NDP representative 2. a member of the LGBT community 3. a woman who speaks her mind, is articulate, and doesn't look like a Barbie doll). I dunno, we'll see - depends on whether I feel like hauling ass to go out again immediately after coming home from work, I guess.