Bruce McGuigan

These days I’m an unemployed student living in a crack house. I quit my job at the beginning of the year to go back and finish my Ph.D started 14 years ago. At this moment, I am sitting in my office at the University of Calgary procrastinating by writing this.

Since high school:

I worked in my dad’s shop (alternating with Craig) getting the business together to sell it after my dad died. During the same period, I worked with messed up kids. At 23 I started my BA at McGill – establishing a life pattern of heading off to school long after most folks our age. I finished it, and ran a youth program is Surrey for a couple of years, quit that, worked in the bush prospecting. Prospecting was great. Go to these wind swept deserted wilderness places, and try to find a reason to civilize them with an open pit mine.

I worked briefly in Spain teaching English, then headed off to do an MA at 30. Married a woman I met in Spain, finished the MA but not the Ph.D. Had two great kids. Taught at U Vic for a while, got divorced, worked in government, quit that, and here I am.

The Crack house is in Victoria, where I live – Calgary is as it should be: TEMPORARY. When I’m really bored, I try to do renos on it. I generally give up, and leave the materials and tools scattered around the front yard in the hope that a passer-by or neighbour will finish the job. They never do, so I just let the lawn grow out to cover the mess.

The kids have never been arrested and generally show up to school. They are Kevin (13) and Sara (15). I have half-time custody of the two of them. They are mysteriously well adjusted and happy. I don’t know how it happened. I don’t know anyone from Hillside who was happy and well-adjusted at 13 or 15. I wasn’t, none of my firends were, my ex wasn’t, were you? Maybe I’m just not noticing something.

For fun I paraglide. I’m shockingly bad at it considering how long I’ve been doing it. I’ve only been hospitalized once, and that was years ago. Maybe I’m just not trying hard enough.

Pass the word. I am single, and very sexy in that almost-completely-bald-slightly- overweight-middle-aged-male kind of way.

My e-mail is flybruce@shaw.ca or wbmcguig@ucalgary.ca