Weeknotes: September 7th - September 13th 2026
Disclaimer: It should be mentioned that Weeknotes are always a snapshot of the week itself and lack the fullness of life - as is the case with any personal blogging.
✨ Chance's Happenings
- On Labour Day, I mostly just puttered around the condo doing various chores and playing video games – though I did go to the cafe to do some work on my bullet journal.
- With the second week of the academic year, I continued to work on establishing classroom expectations and got into a better rhyme of lesson planning. With that occupying me during the work day, I was blessed that I got to spend more time with Taylor in the evenings.
- On Saturday morning, I listened to Radiohead and worked through some online occupational training modules for the CBE. After finishing training, Taylor and I went bouldering with Alexis and got empanadas. For the rest of the day, I played video games, including S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl on the PlayStation 5 (blessings to Avery) in the afternoon and Sid Meier's Civilization VII (I began the game as the Mississippians) in the evening.
- For Sunday, Taylor, James, and I went on a bike ride around the downtown core (stopping at Sidewalk Citizen Bakery for goodies). For lunch, we joined Jan, Rand, Hubertus, and Judy at the Porch to celebrate Judy's birthday. For the rest of the day, I listened to music and played Sid Meier's Civilization VII with Taylor.
- For reading, I continued Anand Gopal’s Days of Love and Rage: A Story of Ordinary People Forging a Revolution. As for video games, I continued playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, but I also started playing Split Fiction and a game of Sid Meier's Civilization VII with Taylor.
📷 Photos
👣 Taylor's Footnotes
- I can't believe that Pride was already a week ago now. I am starting to get some rest, though most of Tuesday to Friday was spent between doctor's appointments, bouts of part time work, and trying and mostly succeeding at regaining a foothold on the routine I had almost a month ago, that I wholly lost in these last few weeks. It's exhausting coming out of this and staring down even more professional and personal change on the horizon. Outlink recently shared that it is facing a 100k shortage. Perhaps a bleak reminder that Pride is also down around 250k shares some indication of the shifting sands of corporate and political policy - falling sand where there was once land that could hold a young queer professional like myself. I feel blessed to have been able to do the good gay work over these last few years. We are now entering decidedly difficult times for the few of us able to work professional jobs that specifically serve the queer community. It's been an incredible thing, having the privilege to attend not one, but three national Pride conferences and to be surrounded by paid community experts of all kinds. It's been a privilege to hold such responsibility to help run a nearly million dollar a year organization, as a team of only three full-time staff. To run an actual ethics sanctioned research project about the Policing of Pride and queer communities. To try and continue to bridge community trust once broken by members of Calgary Pride in the past, and be a steady hand to guide genuine change from the inside. But well before a person like myself could work at Calgary Pride, incredibly compassionate volunteers made beautiful things happen. The queer community has supported itself through hard times before any legally operating organization could exist. Queer people pushed against the machinations of history to advance every person's human rights, and we can do it again. There is no closet to return to.
- I don't really know how to wrap this up if I am being honest. But I love my queer family and my straight conspirators, all so much. And thank you for being part of this Taylor's support system, and chosen family. <3
