... and I would have succeeded if it hadn't been for you pesky kids!

[lolaraincoat]

You've heard me say this a time or two already but I'd better say it again, to start: I love Canada and I love living in Canada and it's much better to live here than to live in the U.S.

But Canada has a flaw, and that flaw is that it is just not that great as a place to consume. Some of these failures of consumer culture actually spring from Canada's many virtues. Having all that access to health care and education and unions and all has empowered workers to the point that service in restaurants is frequently crappy. So this is a great thing, though I have to struggle to remember that while waiting half an hour for the damn check to arrive. Similarly, though sales taxes here are very high and that's got to be the least just way to redistribute income, sales taxes are balanced by high-ish income taxes and taxes on land, so that's good, and the government spends our taxes mostly on things we approve of, like health care and education, and not so much on missiles or invading Iraq or supporting Halliburton.

But it saddens and puzzles me, the list of What You Can't Buy In Canada. Aside from strictly illegal things, like handguns and armor-piercing bullets, Ontario stores at least don't seem to sell quite a number of items I have missed: cortisone cream, for instance. Nonoxynol-9 suppositories and a few other forms of birth control. Grits. Good barbeque and country ham. Many, many types of beer. Certain Body Shop products (what? fishwhistle loves that crap.) Tomatillas. And -- this is what I'm missing right this very minute - naproxyn. You know, Aleve(tm). Just not available here.

And yes, okay, the border is less than two hours away so we could just pop ourselves into the car and go get some grits and naproxyn sodium. But since the reason I want the Aleve is that my back is paining me today, two hours in the car seems like a bad idea, and I'm cranky. But now that I've explained to you all how much I am suffering, oddly, I feel better. Either that, or the ibuprofen is kicking in.

Comments

[executrix.livejournal.com]

Would you get into any kind of trouble if I mailed you a 55-gallon drume of Aleve? I mean, it's not illegal, is it--just not available? Because I can get it easily. Ditto cortisone cream. (And, for that matter, grits, I just don't know if you want 'em enough to get them mailed.) I haven't seen any Nonoxynol-9 suppositories but maybe I could hunt 'em down.

However, the service in restaurants here in Jersey City is *grotesquely* bad and no matter how many Nouvelle Pits open the barbecue isn't up to much anywhere near NYC.

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Aw, thanks. That's very kind. As it turns out (and wow, what you learn from posting to lj!) I can get Alleve here, but it's prescription. Which is fine - that means it will be covered by insurance. Bargain!

As for the other stuff, we have a lifetime supply sitting here from our last couple of trips into the US, so we're good.

But thanks!

[executrix.livejournal.com]

Just say the word--it's in the 99 cent store. I don't know what it costs you to go to the doctor and what sort of copayments you have on prescriptions, so it could be cheaper for someone here to mail it to you than for you to have to go through that rigmarole. But I guess they can write you a script when you're having your extremely matutinal MRI.

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Doctor is free for me (oh, Canada! thanks Canada!) and so are the drugs (oh, powerful union which brings us the lovely supplementary benefits! thanks, union!) so it's really fine. And I have to see the doc sometime this week about my stupid back anyhow - I was going to hit her up for a little emergency codeine, but I'll get her to add some naproxyn to the mix.

But thank you! I'm touched and amazed by how many people responded to my whinging with offers of goodies, pharmacutical and otherwise. And as always, touched and amazed by your generosity in particular.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

Livejournal: Stuff in Motion!

Hey, what part of the US for July 4th? Like, THIS part?

[twistedchick]

I have found that Body Shop markets their products based on the FDA (or your equivalent) in whichever country; at one point I could get rosemary toner in Canada and not the US.

But I do not understand why quercetin doesn't exist in Ontario. It's like bromelain, an anti-inflammatory derived from fruit (with quercetin it's apples and quince, with bromelain it's pineapple), it's a very reasonable thing to take for allergies (it does wonders for hay fever and seasonal pollen problems), and it just isn't there.

::headshake, and occasional headdesk::

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Huh. I've never even heard of quercetin or bromelain. They sound interesting.

And does stuff like soap have to get FDA approval? I didn't know it was regulated as closely as drugs or food. Not that food is all that closely regulated lately.

[twistedchick]

Depends on what it has in it and what claims are made about it.

I have found bromelain in Toronto, but never quercetin.

[dremiel.livejournal.com]

I'm perfectly happy to send you grits, aleve, cortisone cream, etc. I've got tomatillos in the garden but think customs would not aprove. I CAN send tomatillo sauce.

Seriously, I lived in Edmonton for seven years and (mostly) loved it but I remember how cool it ws to get stuff from home.

Feel free to send me your address and wish list: sbarras sbcglobal.net.

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's so kind of you! thank you! We're actually doing all right for all those things (except naproxyn but it turns out I can get that here with a scrip, which makes it a little more trouble but free! whoo!) so there's no need, but I'm really touched by your offer.

Whatever were you doing in Edmonton?

[dremiel.livejournal.com]

Whatever were you doing in Edmonton?

Mostly, being a tragically misunderstood disaffected proto-goth teen! ;)

Father in the petro-chemical biz. It was MANY moons ago (1973-1980).

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Hee! Edmonton would be a tough place to be proto-goth, I'd expect.

We just met someone from Edmonton the other night, a lovely person, smart and interesting and super-sophisticated, and she was telling us that her entire family's entire life revolves around skating -- they picked their house so they could be in the neighborhood where their daughter's rink is, just for starters ...

..

[whorlpool.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's bad service; it's a different kind of service. In the states, people expect the wait staff to be there all the time, and as soon as one part of the meal is done, the next immediately arrives. Here, people seem to expect to wait and chat for a while, and then the bill eventually shows up. It's definitely an adjustment. I'm actually beginning to prefer it this way.

Re: ..

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

You know, I think you're right. Huh.

It's funny -- I've been here almost six years now, and am planning to stay forever, but I still go through cycles of feeling (and probably behaving) very very very American: impatient, respectful of efficiency, expecting a certain kind of deference and not at all pleased with other people's different ideas about hierarchy ... It comes and goes, but yeah, I think I'm probably in one of those moments now.

Oh well. We have to be in the US over the July 4th holiday (which I have managed to avoid 12 of the last 15 summers) and that will, no doubt, cure me of any lingering nostalgia for the yanqui way of life.

[contrary-wise.livejournal.com]

No tomatillas in Toronto? Come to Montreal! The canned ones are easy enough to find all over my neighborhood. Just yesterday I noted that the Chilean takeout place down the block sells them. And in late summer I can usually find them fresh at the farmer's market. I'll bring you some next time I'm in Toronto!

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Well, as you might see from the next post, this problem solved itself that very afternoon. But come see us when you're next in TO anyway!

And we will be in Montreal for LASA early this September, by the way, if you want to get together ...

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

No grits? That's just wrong. On the other hand, I'm grateful for my trips into Canada so that I may obtain ketchup-flavored potato chips.

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Yes, Canada certain does its part in supplying the world with oddly-seasoned crisps. But it's true - there are no grits here. At least not that I've found. We smuggle them in from the US, along with New Mexico-type dried corn for posole. Dried corn of many lands is available here, only not grits nor posole. It's a mystery.

[tournevis.livejournal.com]

Aleve is available here. With a prescription.

[tournevis.livejournal.com]

You can get cortisone cream, by asking the pharmacist. They keep it behond the counter beside the iron supplements and the hypodermic needles.

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Ooooooh. That makes sense.

But why do they hide the iron supplements?

[tournevis.livejournal.com]

Because an overdoser of iron is deadly.

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Holy COW! thank you! that bit of knowledge will improve my life enormously.

[idlerat.livejournal.com]

do you want me to send you some?

A friend of mine had a very very bad experience with it, btw- I avoid the stuff as a result, and maybe that's what Canadia is protecting you from. (It relaxed the sphincter at the top of her stomach and her esophagus was so badly burned by acid that she couldn't eat for weeks.)

So, um, want me to send some?

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Huh. Interesting! It turns out that you can get it here, but by prescription. Which makes it effectively free for me, so no need to send it to me. But thank you!