Hotel’s ‘tip-the-housekeeper’ campaign draws ire from a public suffering tipping fatigue

My sisters and I encountered housekeeping tip envelopes when we stayed at Best Western in Quebec City this summer. Although we declined services during our three-day stay, some of us left a little something before checking out. I agree with some comments on this article that if someone is being paid to make sure your room is clean or that your food is served as ordered, intact and on time, why is there an expectation to tip? Tip fatigue indeed!

Forgiveness

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It’s one thing to forgive another’s transgressions – 

It’s another to FORGiVE oneself

for bad life choices,

preoccupation with past mistakes, 

those self doubts,

or regrets.

definition forgive

It has taken me years to forgive myself for not acting soon enough,

to lead the exodus of the innocents,

to expose a dark burden,

to shed an uncomfortable skin.  

When we travel the rough roads of this earthly existence, I think we experience and appreciate more moments of being alive.  I believe that it’s during the financial and emotional hardships that a spark of creativity ignites to nurture hope and an innate desire to connect with other souls.   

I am in the middle of being alive

BEing ALiVE

In The Year of the Rabbit, a novel about Fate, Family and Forgiveness, the readers share the joy, sadness and other emotions experienced by Father Gio and Sera Fletcher.  

I am Gio.  I am Sera.  Perhaps you are too. 

reader comment about sera in yotr novel

Thanks for dropping by.

T

 

Extended Canadian summer vacation

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It is very rare that I will take more than two weeks’ vacation at a time.

It is not easy to relax one’s psyche with all the shaky and unbelievably violent shit going down south of us and the atrocities being lobbed back and forth in the Middle East. 

While acknowledging what’s going on and is beyond my control, I risk to say that I feel relaxed to the point that I am now a bit bored.  I need a distraction that will make good use of a creative mind and idle hands.

cats lounging on couch

Cats know how to relax

The first week involved volunteer work, travel preparations and a tearful reunion with my four sisters and French Canadian relatives.

The second week brought visiting relatives to le petit apartment on two separate occasions, saying farewell to one of the fledglings, and my completion of an awkward yet important medical test. Call it preventative maintenance for someone who has reached a certain age…

FOBT envelope reminder label

FOBT mailing envelope warning

In this third week I have plans for social engagements, outdoorsy wanderings and appointments.

During a lazy Sunday afternoon while wandering on the Internets, I found what could be a new cause, a campaign to propose that the great but humble Canada reconsider its national mascot.

black cat on coffee table

Snuggles the cat is wary of my busy mind

I reintroduce to you the Ookpik, an Inuit creation that satisfied the need for a mascot in 1964.

 

 

 

So the deep blonde thought that has come out of this summer hiatus is: 

What if the Ookpik could be constructed from sustainable materials (a-hem – not seal skins) and reintroduced in a Canadian mascot campaign?

 

Let’s see how far this idea will fly.

Stay tuned and thanks for dropping by.

Theresa