If my profs could see me now....

While at Western I was often told how important it is to get my work published. At the time, my profs were probably referring to Scientific Journals since my BSc becomes a lot more useful if I have published work. I guess four years of paper writing has paid off, as I now do have something published. Mind you, it's only partial quotes, and it's in a newspaper instead of journal, but you have to start somewhere!

Though I fully understand that blogs are a free for all in a public domain, it's still a little strange to have strangers being directed to my stories and thoughts. For any of my friends who have no clue what I’m talking about, the link to the article is here http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=295724&catname=Local%20News&classif=.

For anyone interested in my profession and why if I'm supposed to be working at Guelph University I'm still in St. Catharines.... as a missionary with a non-profit Christian organization, I have to raise all my own funds to go work full time. If you'd like info on how to help me get there, information on giving is found at http://www.crusade.org/giving/staff.html. If you surf around that site it also has a lot more information on the organization! Feel free to click on comment on this site and let me know if you'd like to talk to me more.

Irony

Has my life changed since becoming the first daughter?

Yes... the local newspaper had never been interested in my blog prior to my new found status...

Life is funny, but I can't complain.

My life as the First Daughter...

The other day while talking to an unamed British Columbian friend she mentioned that my blog is "oh so empty." I would agree. There has been so much going on that I got out of the habit of posting, and now it's hard to get back into it. Do I actually attempt to write about my experiences over the last two months? I feel like that would take pages of blog space, and precious time that I don't have. So instead of doing that, I'll just give a brief overview of my life since becoming the First Daughter of St. Catharines without getting into specifics (use your imagination).

Thanks to the soup picture in the Standard (the Standard is our local paper, they had a picture of the McMullan kids and our Dad on the front page 2 days after the election... I was cooking soup), as well as my Dad's handy dandy brochures I apparently am easily recognized amongst customers at pretty much any store or coffee shop. I think that has passed... but it's sufficient to say that I answered more questions about taxes, garbage, recycling, doctors, and flower planters that I would ever care to answer. I have now become the Mayor's personal messenger, and the jury is still out on how I feel about that.

Don't get me wrong, I honestly do appreciate being able to listen to people's problems, and often that means hearing things that I have no control over, but at least am able to listen. However, I think people actually think that be telling me their City problems I can get them fixed faster than a speeding bullet. Again, I'm all up for hearing people out, and even helping when I can, but I can't say I'll be happy when I get to Guelph and take a much lower profile and quite possibly an unlisted phone number.

Mayor Daddy

Well.... as you can tell I have definitely not had time in the last month to post anything. Things have been fairly crazy around my place, and in case you haven't heard my dad is the new Mayor elect of St. Catharines! We had a good feeling in the last week or two, but I don't think anyone ever expected the victory that he received- possibly the biggest win in St. Catharines' history! Congrats Dad.... it's on to Guelph for me.