journal features

my first X'mas party in four years

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2011.12.01

I attended my first company X'mas party since 2007, tonight.

It wasn't my employer, curiously, but it was excuse to break with the usual routine of work->home->work->home that makes up life in Toronto when you're middle aged. Actually, given the free booze, an oyster bar, and the chance to see four hundred people behaving like 2008-2010 hadn't happened, it was rather pleasant indeed.

I realize that the good times aren't coming back, but found tonight's affair a civil thing worth doing even in lousy times.

rand()m quote

On the endless saga of Rob Ford, mayor of Toronto; "It shouldn't have had to come to this. I'm so tired of getting up every morning and wondering, 'What will it be today?' I'm so tired of giving the benefit of the doubt again and again, only to be let down again and again.... Somewhere a responsible adult has to appear, draw a bright moral line, tell the truth and say unequivocally what won't be tolerated. Somebody has to do the right thing."

—Denzil Minnan-Wong