Wrong. Or at least it is for myself and thousands of other postsecondary students in my position.

If you are a student or a parent of a student, I am sure you are familiar with the 2012 Tuition Rebate that the Liberal government promised. It may have even swayed your vote. We were led to believe that the program would allow for college students to receive $800 per year and $1600 for those enrolled in university. What they didn’t tell us at election time were the criteria to be considered for the rebates. 

In a nutshell, you must:

- be a full time student at an Ontario college or university
- have been out of high school for less than 4 years 
- be enrolled in a first entry program (ie not postgraduate)
- your parents’ gross income must be less than $160,000

Now, having to be a full time student I can see. Going to school part time makes students ineligible for a lot of funding. Being in a first entry program doesn’t really seem to make sense to me, because students are students, and we’re all broke. But it also doesn’t apply to me, so I won’t worry too much about that.

My issues are with the other points. In order to be considered, your parents must make less than $160,000. Someone please explain to me how someone who’s parents make $80,000 each is in need of this rebate? Odds are in that case the student would not even be eligible for OSAP, because the parents make enough to pay for tuition. Why offer rebates to those who can easily afford tuition without relying on student loans?

But the real issue is in the second point. I have been out of high school for 5 years. I have been enrolled in postsecondary education for 4.5 of those years. I am currently completing the third year of my bachelor’s degree, but because I graduated high school in the wrong year, I will not be receiving the rebate. I believe the logic behind this point is to make mature students ineligible. While I don’t think this is necessarily fair, it falls into the same category as those doing a post-grad program. Basically it’s the government’s way of eliminating as many groups as possible.

So what’s my problem with all of this? I am not a mature student. I attended college for a year and a half before deciding to switch programs. I had to wait until September for my new program to start which required me to be out of school for almost a year. Had I been sitting at home since I graduated in 2007 twiddling my thumbs, I could sort of understand. (Only sort of). The fact that I have been enrolled in school for the last 3 years means nothing as far as this rebate is concerned. If someone had told me back when I was 18 that I better know exactly what I wanted to do with my life or I would end up losing funding, I might have taken a slightly different approach. I just cannot for the life of me understand how changing programs is being held against me.

So assuming that anyone has actually read this far, I can assume you’re thinking, “Okay great, you’re not getting the money. But why did you say you are losing money?!” Ah. It gets better.

In order to fund the new rebates, the government has decided to cancel the $150 textbook and technology grant which was available to most students every year. The logic being that if they’re giving you all this tuition back, you’ll have to pay for your own books. (Not that $150 pays for even one book, but that’s a whole other rant). So myself – and 2/3 of students enrolled at George Brown, according to The Toronto Star – will not only miss out on the new rebate, but we will lose that grant. That’s right. It will now cost me $150 more to go to school every year. Thanks, Dalton.

So for those of you who do meet the criteria, you must be thinking, “Wow, that’s crazy. Thank God I am fresh out of high school and can still get all this money!” And that’s okay. If I had a cheque waiting in the mail, I’d be thinking the same thing. But wait! There’s more.

If you’re already receiving OSAP, you will be automatically considered for the rebate. However, if you already receive OSAP, chances are you already receive the Ontario Access Grant. The amount of this grant will be deducted from the rebate. So let’s do some math. 

I received an Ontario Access Grant of $960. 

Tuition rebate of $800 – Ontario Access Grant of $960 = – $160.

What?! I OWE money?! Good thing I’m not eligible in the first place! 

1. People cheering at midnight. I rang in the new year at work, and at midnight, I had to listen to a solid 5 minutes of cheering and shouting and screaming. From Nathan Phillips Square. Many, many blocks away from my work. It was so loud it may as well have been happening inside my head. WHY ARE YOU CHEERING? It’s just midnight. It happens every day. OMG YAY IT’S SUNDAY AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!

2. Stupid resolutions. Why wait all year to change yourself when you can start on any other 364 days. Pushing goals aside until January is lazy. If your life sucks, do something about it. Don’t wait until the new year and tell yourself you’re going to suck less this year. You probably won’t. And thanks to people like this, I won’t be able to get a treadmill at the gym until January 15.

3. Facebook status updates. “2012 is going to be a good year!” “SO glad 2011 is over – bring on the new year!” Seriously?! Seriously. 2011 was YESTERDAY. Your life probably isn’t going to change dramatically at the stroke of midnight. The fact that you’re writing a new date these days likely hasn’t impacted your life in any way. And come December, Facebook will be full of “OMG 2012 was SO LAME. 2013 HERE WE COME!” Really. Don’t kid yourself. This year will be shitty too.

4. Everything is closed. You know when it’s acceptable to have every store imaginable closed on the same day? Christmas. A widely-recognized Christian holiday celebrating Santa coming down the chimney Christ’s birth. What happened on January 1? Newsflash, the month changes every 30 days or so. No need to close down the entire fucking world.

Seriously folks. It’s just Sunday. No need to get all excited. Ugh.

So let’s talk about New Years. And this is not another countdown – the title was meant to be witty. Not sure if I achieved that or not.  Anyway. The other day my boyfriend asked me what my New Year’s resolutions will be, and I laughed. I have never been a resolution type of person, and let me explain why.

What are the most common resolutions? Go to the gym, eat more veggies, spend  less money, and floss?

Well, I hate going to the gym at the best of times, so starting a regular routine in the dead of winter when I have to don boots and mittens just to get to the gym? Putting on the boots is workout enough.

You know when I like veggies? Never. Except for corn on the cob. Find me some corn on the cob in January and we’ll talk.

Spend less money. Most people probably spent all their money on Christmas and Boxing Day. I am a grinch who only bought for 2 people and worked on Boxing Day, so in reality I think I have more money to spend come January.

And floss? Well my most recent visit to the dentist turned up with 9 cavities, so at the stern advice of my dental hygienist, I’ve been flossing regularly for a while now.

So that’s that. I might sound incredibly cynical, but I prefer to think I am realistic. How many people really, really stick to their resolutions come February? My guess is not many. So instead of ill-fated promises to better myself, I am going to share some goals that I have for the near future that I hope to get a start on in the new year.

1. Open an RSP. My smartass caring father bought me a copy of The Wealthy Barber Returns for Christmas and it has actually given me some insight into my future. And given that I am headed toward a career in social services, it looks like I’m going to be on my own for a pension. Not to mention the fact that I fucked up my tax forms at my new job and haven’t paid any taxes since June, so I could use the tax deduction of an RSP. And the book taught me something about investing $100/month starting now and ending up with $200,000 come retirement, and that sounds pretty cool too.

2. Get heat in my apartment. As of about a week ago, I have lived in my apartment longer than I’ve ever lived anywhere, ever (save for my Dad’s place). I’ve been in this place for somewhere around a year and 15 days. I know, sad record. Anyway. We have never had heat. I know. I KNOW. I am a horrible person for not dealing with this. I somehow feel like last winter wasn’t as cold or something, because today it was freezing in here, so I broke down and called the landlord and have set the ball rolling. I am sure it will be easier said than done, but at least my horrified family can rest assured that I’ve made a step in the warm direction.

3. Back up all my files. Good old Dad also bought me an external hard drive, which I have been meaning to do for months. I have a bit of a procrastinating problem. The issue here is that the files on my computer are so painfully disorganized, and I feel like it would be counterproductive to back them up without sorting them first. Which might take another few months. Ugh.

4. Fix my computer. Or maybe not. See, I have this issue paying someone to fix it because I clearly know better than the entire Geek Squad, and I’m fairly certain they won’t know what’s wrong. So I may just have to make do with a brand new laptop that I can’t unplug or it will die.

5. Was that the right use of do? Make due? Make do? Hmm.

6. Get rid of all the extra shit in my house. Admittedly, this is a little resolutiony, but it’s a coincidence! My current roommate’s former roommate left a bunch of stuff behind when she moved to BC, mostly kitchen stuff. The problem now is that I can never remember what belongs to my current roommate and what belonged to her former roommate, so I can never do any purging. (I am aware that I could just ask her for help. Shut up.) However, now my current roommate is moving to BC as well (I know this isn’t helping simplify things) and I will finally know what stuff I can get rid of. Because all of the stuff will be mine, or not mine. Yea. Makes sense to me anyway. For example, I can sort through our 45 cereal bowls and decide to keep a select few, or buy my own, and I won’t be accidentally getting rid of my roommate’s favourite dish.

7. Buy a bigger bookshelf. Current roommie is leaving me all the bowls, but sadly she took her awesome living room shelves down, which were the previous home of a lot of my shit. So now a large portion of my wordly possessions live in a milk crate, and the rest are in a pile on the living room floor.

Anyway. I have worked far too many days in a row on far too few hours of sleep, so I am going to quit while I’m ahead. Even though I am pretty sure I started falling behind around #2…

xo.

Today I tried out the less-fatty version, with a skinny peppermint hot chocolate. I wanted them to add whipped cream, but I didn’t want to be that person who orders a Big Mac meal with a Diet Coke, so I had to do without. Still a pretty good choice though!

Cory opted for a Pumpkin Spice Latte, which I’m pretty sure they just kept on the menu because they had leftover syrup from Thanksgiving. But I suppose it still satisfies the holiday criteria, so I’ll let it slide.

Plus I have to admit it looks pretty festive:

xo.

One day several years ago we decided to make cookie ornaments. You know, the ones that smell like cinnamon and nutmeg and Christmas? Yea, didn’t turn out.

Proceed with caution. You will never unsee these.

Pretty certain these little guys would creep out of the oven and eat your brain if they got the chance.

xo.

Someone get me one of these for Christmas and I will love you forever.

xo.

Anyway. I am also aware that I already posted about holiday baking and the cookies I was making, but they didn’t turn out that well. Certainly not well enough for my baking blog. So I will share them here instead.

I had originally intended to make sugar cookies that I had seen in Canadian Living magazine, but I didn’t have the ingredients to make the proper icing. I found an alternate recipe that claimed to be thicker than the traditional sugar cookie glaze, but still had 900+ reviews that swore by it.

Well, that icing sucked.

So when I tried to decorate my cute little snowflake cookies, I failed miserably. So here’s a sneak peek at what I will be gifting this year:

I also made some gingerbread men that had potential, but after two and a half hours icing cookies in my kitchen I just didn’t care enough to make them pretty. And the red eyes were supposed to be Christmasy, but I’ll admit that they look like they came straight from hell.

Oh well. At least I can still make whoopie pies.

Anyway. Today I did some Christmas shopping. I usually try to avoid the malls on weekends any time after Nov 1, but I had a rare day off and had to take advantage. I went to Sherway Gardens in the west end of the city hoping it wouldn’t be quite as busy, and I think it was a good call. It was still chaos, but manageable chaos.

I brought my own camera in hopes of getting some original photos for my blog, but the crowds weren’t what I expected, and I didn’t want to risk upsetting all the shoppers hopped up on eggnog by taking their photo. It worked out, because I found this file photo from the Toronto Star:

You can expect a very similar photo when I post about the Swarovski tree. So avert your eyes from the tree and focus on the crowds! This was the last Saturday before Christmas last year at the Toronto Eaton Centre. You can read the original story here.

And as a former TEC employee, I can vouch for the fact that the mall was like this EVERY weekend for about two months surrounding the holidays. And while this might sound crazy, now that I am a shopper and not an employee, I don’t really mind the crowds. There is something exciting about throngs of people, all at the mall with the same purpose of spreading holiday cheer. I know. So corny.

I guess it doesn’t hurt that I did most of my shopping in early November, so I wasn’t feeling the same panic as everyone else to find the perfect gift. In actual fact, aside from a gift for my Secret Santa at work, I scored some body butter, a handbag, a pile of underwear and $100 worth of makeup. For myself. As well as some treats for my dad’s cat.

Anyway. After a week of not posting this was rather anti-climatic. Better luck next time.

xo.

I also think I made an error in my math, because even when I post the actual date for today (20th day), I end up with 20 + 6. So my countdown is essentially going to bring us to Boxing Day. But oh well. Boxing Day’s pretty cool too.

Anyway. Since I literally d0n’t have a free day between now and Christmas, I have been trying to squeeze my holiday baking in when I can. So far I have made a batch of nanaimo bars, a batch of whoopie pies, and two batches of sugar cookies. The cookies aren’t frosted yet (that has to wait until closer to the day) so I didn’t want to feature them on my other blog, so I thought a sneak peek would be fitting for my Christmas theme. Behold!

Maybe if you’re good you’ll get some

xo.

This is what I have lined up for my Christmas treats this year:

Hopefully you made my nice list