#ladyness

You need more ladyness than you might realize today.

Happy Friday, gals.  Have some Diana Ross being pissed off at Berry Gordy.

By my count, I have now been unemployed for about two months. I’m counting from when we arrived in Ottawa and moved into our flat – everything before that was the honeymoon. Anyway, it’s pretty hard going finding a job here. I’m finding it way more difficult that I thought it would be to break into the job market. I had thought that since Ottawa was the capital there would be plenty of policy work. Well, there is, but I’m ineligible to apply for most of it. In order to work for the Federal Government in Canada, you have to be able to get a security clearance, and you can’t really get one of those unless you are either a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident, who has lived in Canada for at least five years.

Another unexpected hurdle is that bilingualism is required for a lot of jobs. Because it is the capital, and just across the river from Quebec, Ottawa has really embraced bilingualism – even the shopgirls are required to be able to communicate in both official languages. Ottawa University, where Wil is based, is a totally bilingual university, and courses are offered in bother English and French - so you can take Economics 101 in either language. I did French until the end of seventh form. When we were getting ready to move, I brushed up on my French with classes at the Alliance Francaise for a term, thinking that it would give me an edge in the job market here. I was really enjoying it and thought I was doing pretty well. However, I had totally underestimated how prevalent French is in Ottawa, and how well everyone would speak it. My confidence with the language has taken a big knock back.

Anyway, those are the two major issues for me in finding a job – a security clearance and French. So what do I do all day? Well, my main activity is job hunting. I’ve applied for about 40 jobs so far. For the rest of the time, I work on being a lady, by perfecting my accomplishments. What I’ve realised is that all the things I do to occupy myself are pretty much what a lady in Jane Austen’s time would have been doing. As Caroline Bingley said in Pride and Prejudice:

“A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word [accomplished].”

Well, here’s what I do:

Practice my ukulele (with singing). I particularly like to play songs from the 80s. Wil doesn’t like it when I play Elton John songs.

Dance round the house as I vacuum. Sometimes, I put on my sneaky Shakira songs and do a bit of zumba…

Take French lessons. I’ve signed up at the Ottawa Alliance and go to class twice a week. It’s great having a real reason to get out of the house, and to talk with people who are not Wil.

Knit. So far I have made myself a cozy scarf, and I’m now working on one for Wil in a nice brown and cream wool – very manly.

Work on domestic goddessness: baking bread and other goodies. You all know already how much I enjoy cooking. It’s been interesting trying out new ingredients and figuring out how to make things work in this new environment.

“All this she must possess,” added Darcy, “and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.”

Haha! I do this too! I have definitely improved my knowledge of the relationship between the dead and the living by reading Charlaine Harris' Harper Connelly series.

So, as you can see, I am well on my way to becoming a proper lady. I must remember to add that to my CV.