Day 11 - Dead mouse, thunder and a Happy Birthday

If it wasn't for the fact that I've been numbering my blogs to match the number of days that I've been doing the whole "work from home", "social isolation" and "social distancing" thing, I'd have no idea how long I'd have been at home. It's been nine work days.

It was a grey, rainy, dull kind of day. Work was quiet. I did chat online with a few co-workers and we were able to review some documents via email so on the whole things are working well and we're saving trees in the process.

The rain cooperated and let up in time for me to go for a walk at lunch, without getting wet or having to take my umbrella. On the way out of my driveway, I saw a dead mouse. Thankfully, it wasn't a real mouse. I truly had to do a double take. The cardinals were very vocal again today which is beautiful to hear. But so were the crows. Not sure what had them all riled up. I kept looking to see if there was a hawk or something larger in the area but I didn't see anything. Just a couple Vs of geese returning home for the season.

The "dead mouse" I found at the end of the driveway

My walk and I are a bit funny. Thanks to my knee, every single step I take hurts. It's mostly a dull ache or throb unless I step funny or am not paying attention and twist suddenly, then it's a very sharp pain. When I first start walking, everything from my waist down hurts. My lower backs, hips, knees, legs...feet were ok today. But I keep moving, because I know, it will all loosen up. Sure enough, by the time I've hit the halfway mark and I'm on my way back home, all the pains are gone, except the injured knee and today my lower back wouldn't stop for some reason. My head feels clearer, my sinuses are clearer, my breath feels stronger and I feel more energetic. All of the positives out weigh the pain from my knee. I don't forget it's there, but enjoying my time outside helps me focus on something besides it.

This afternoon we were graced with a single roll of thunder. Apparenlty there was some lightening too but my back is to the window so I didn't see it. Sure heard the thunder though. It was one of those good ones that you can hear rolling across the sky.  Guess there was a single storm cloud passing by. Thunder storms are one of my favourite things. Nature can be really cool sometimes.

Today is my niece's 8th birthday. I do feel bad for her that she didn't get to have a party and see all of her friends but she didn't see bummed out about that. She was more excited about the fact that she got an ice cream cake for her birthday and got to have it for lunch. The simple joys of an 8 year old. We did a puzzle together over video chat, which was as difficult as it sounds. LOL. We got it though! She's a pretty fun kid with a very incredible imagination. I hope she never loses it. I'm sure it will serve her well later in life. It amuses me that she's inherited the stubborn streak that runs in my family. My brother is going to have fun with that when she's older. It was nice to be able to see and talk to her.

Had a quick video chat with my parents too. They had a rather large bunny in their yard this afternoon/evening. They've been throwing leftover veggies and fruit out into their garden so that might explain the size of the rabbit.

I have tomorrow off. Not sure what I'm going to do other than attempt to sleep in. I'm sure I can find something to keep myself occupied. I don't need geoceries yet so I most likely will not venture out to the store, though a Bulk Barn run out we nice. It's not necessary though so I'm not sure if I'll attempt it or not.

I definately feel better today. I'm hoping for some sunshine tomorrow to help keep my spirits up.

"I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity." - Eleanor Roosevelt

Down 2 and Up 10,000

Guess what? At some point in the last week, my lowly little blog cracked 10,000 page views. That's kind of awesome. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I can't believe anyone actually reads my ramblings. I still can't get over how much writing this blog has helped me. It's funny how something so simple can be so effective. I'm truly looking forward to the next 10,000 page views milestone.

Anyhow....It's been a crazy week at the office and it's been a short week too since I had Monday off. For some odd reason, short weeks seem to feel long. I dunno. Maybe it's our desire to get back to the weekend again. I started my new position on Monday. It hasn't been a totally smooth transition as I'm still doing some of the old duties until the new person is fully equipped and up and running. I've been kept rather busy with my new tasks though, so that's good. Keeps me out of trouble that way. My boss reminded me to look into the available training sessions and let him know which ones I'd like to take and if there were any other tools that I feel that I need in order to become an expert with my new position. Sounds like a good idea.

I survived another week of Curves. I even got off my duff and went to the gym on my day odd. Braved the snow/sleet to do so too. I felt pretty great about it when I got home too. As a result of not being at my home club on Monday, we moved my weigh in day to Wednesday. The scale was kind. I lost 2lbs! So I'm down a total of 6.5 in my first 2 weeks. I'm quite happy with those numbers. I just have to keep an eye on the eating plan portion and try not to slide too much. I'm supposed to go out for lunch tomorrow so I'll have to work that into my day. I'm on a quest to find more healthy recipes to try out. Which just gives me a good excuse to kill entire evenings on Pinterest (like I need an excuse). That makes me happy.

While in the grocery store earlier this week, I couldn't help but notice how odd and strange some of the so called "healthy" foods are. I swear to god that I thought they were selling a bag of bird seed in the cereal aisle. I had to actually pick it up and read the label to confirm that it wasn't actually bird seed. It was some sort of muesli or granola. I dunno. It still looked an awful lot like the wild bird seed mix that I get to put on my balcony. It also baffles me as to how expensive 'healthy' food is. For example, 355ml bottles of Pomegranate juice are on 2/$5. Meanwhile, 2L bottles of pop are on 4/$5. Apples are $1.89lb (so maybe 4 apples) where as big bags of photo chips are 2/$3. Sigh. I'm getting low on peanut butter too. I really need that to go on sale soon. The hard part for me is working more vegetables into my meals. I'm kind of a picky eater when it comes to veggies. I only really like a select few: broccoli, cauliflower, raw carrots, mushrooms (cooked), turnip(rutabaga) and brussel sprouts. The turnip that I like is counted as a starch on my meal plan so I can't go hog wild with it. I'm on the fence with cabbage and cucumbers. Some days I like them and some days I don't. I guess the same could be said for celery. I'm not a fan of it cooked though. I'm going to have to get creative.


Maybe while I'm looking for recipes on Pinterest, I'll find some good gift ideas for my parents. I'm struggling to find something to get them and my mother isn't being overly helpful. I ask for a list and my mom gave me 2 items. I told that that didn't count as a list. Sigh. Yes, I know that the spirit and meaning of Christmas isn't about presents and material items. It's just that they give me so much through out the year that I'd like to be able to give them a little something back. To show them how much I love them and appreciate all that they do for me. My Christmas holidays are a month and 6 days away (not that I'm counting).

I need to go and get ready for bed. I work up at 4:21 this morning, got up and went pee, came back to bed and then couldn't sleep. I think I drifted off for about 15 minutes between then and when the alarm went off at 6. It was brutal. I'm hoping that a repeat doesn't occur this evening.

Good Night!

Sarah

Smiling on a sunny day!

Bizarre Little Day

It's been a bizarre little day. I'm not sure what the root cause is. Maybe it's the missing 1 hour of sleep or maybe it's the fact that everyone is slowly coming out of hibernation as the weather warms up. The moon isn't full yet so I can't blame that.

I didn't sleep very well. I kept waking up at strange times and for no apparent reason. Once at work, I found a DVD on my chair from someone who wasn't supposed to be in the office today (turns out he came in at like 6:30am and left notes for a few of us.). Things were progressing normally and then I headed out with some other staff to attend an awards ceremony. Four of my co-workers were receiving awards. It was quite nice, despite one office getting their conference call lines crossed. That part was funny.

Back at the office, things were starting to get a little odd. Well, more odd than usual. People just generally seemed to be in odd/cranky/wacky moods. After observing one odd event, I asked my boss "Do you ever have a moment where you look up and look around and say to yourself 'I'm working in a circus'"? To which she replied "Yes, all the time." LOL. Glad that I'm not alone in my views.

On the bus ride home, a man was killing his boredom by playing with one of the hand straps that hang from the bar on the bus. Instead of holding onto it, he was batting at it (kind of like a cat with a ball) and watching it spin around and around and around the bar. And this was a grown man, not some young guy. It was rather amusing to watch. He kept it up for almost 5 minutes too.

This evening's amusement came from my father. A little after 8pm, my phone rings and I check the call display and it's my parents' number. I answer and it's my dad. He's like "What cha doin'?" I told him that I was cutting up some cheese for my lunch tomorrow. He informed me that his lunch for tomorrow was already made (roast beef sandwich in case anyone's curious). LOL. While I was attempting to wash some grapes, he went on about how Bones was a re-run and how he hoped Murdoch was a nice episode. Finally he got to the point of the call. He told me a fun little story called "Dad's adventure with online banking". My father was trying to access a special RRSP site that the bank has, so that he could see his balance. It's not quite as easy as it sounds and he needed to register for the online site and get a password and then it didn't work.....it ends with my dad getting a poor customer service guy on the phone and my dad not letting him off the line until he could successfully access the online site. And he got the guy to give him the account balance too. LOL. I'm not sure which one I feel worse for: My dad or the customer service guy with the bank.  Dad said that he was just calling to vent. I can appreciate that. Venting is good. I'm a fan of it. Venting prevents blow ups. I really should vent more often.

But dad's story amused me and made me smile. So did the fact that my mom started to have a conversation with me, through my father. She was sitting on the other side of him, asking me questions through dad (which she would have had the answers for if she'd checked her email....). I love them. They're bonkers but I wouldn't change them for anything.

So, like I said, it's been a bizarre little day. But one that made me smile a lot, so that's good, right?

Good Night!

Sarah

Random day, random photo - Asparagus Pigs :)

Super Woman and Snow

I don't even know where to start with today. It's been all over the map and despite a rocky ending, I'm kind of laughing about it. But that might just be because I'm really sleepy right now.

So, I took the day off. I had 2 holiday days left at work and they're "use them or lose them" ones so I decided to use one. I arranged a shopping date with one of my very best friends(NB) and her adorable child (Baby F).  I got to sleep in this morning, which was awesome. Sadly, sleep did not come so easily to NB and Baby F, but he went down for a nap early so things were looking up. Mother Nature was cooperating at the time but soon decided that throwing ice pellets at us would be fun. I took the bus out to Kanata to meet up with them, which was quick and painless. Walking through the mall parking lot while being pelted with little ice chunks was the hard part. Once inside, we got our shop on. Baby F got to pick out a new toy and seemed very happy with all the new things to look out. He even helped me pick out a bottle of hair dye (he had some help from his mom). We then ventured onto Chapters which involved a caffeine stop at Starbucks for NB and I. I got a new book and we headed out to find lunch.

By now the ice had stopped but the snow was picking up and the roads were getting messy. We opted for a drive through and eating lunch at home. Apparently shopping tired out Baby F and he passed out about 5 minutes from home. As a result, NB and I had a peaceful lunch. Once the baby was up, it was time for a changing and a feeding. Both were a little rocky as someone was cranky after their nap. NB got through it all in fine form and with minimal swearing. I doubt she'll ever know just how impressed by her I am. After lunch Baby F seemed quite happy and crawled all over the room playing with all the toys, leaving time for the grown ups to chat and catch up - which was my favourite part of the day.

After a couple of hours, I went out to shovel snow out of the way so the garage door would close properly and so that the car would get out and then it was time to go and pick up Mr. NB. The four of us then headed out for dinner. By now, the roads were a mess, traffic was a mess. the buses were all fucked up, broken down, delayed or jack knifed so we figured that waiting until after rush our would see a smoother trek home.

Dinner was nice. Baby F inhaled it. It was incredible to see. LOL. And our server just kept screwing up. The irony was that he was training someone new!! Towards the end though, Baby F started to get cranky and it was time to jet. I got dropped off at the park and ride and they headed home. When I got into the bus shelter, there was a good number of people there so I was taking that as a good sign - I hadn't missed the bus. Turns out I didn't have to worry about missing the bus simply because there hadn't been one yet......and one wouldn't appear for another hour and 26 minutes!!! We kept seeing "out of service buses" coming into the west end and letting people off but nothing was heading back east. I saw 5 local routes too. It was very frustrating. I could have stayed the night out there but I figured I could last a little while longer and it paid off. The ride home was relatively quick and only slightly nerve racking. It did end was my less than graceful exit off the bus and through a snowbank rather than over it, but nothing was bruised other than my ego so I"m fine. I managed to successfully make it over the next 2 snowbanks I had to traverse on my trek home.

Once home, I got out of my wet clothes and checked my email and then went and had a nice, long soak in a hot bath with some Lavender Epsom Salts. I finished reading my book while I was in there and had a chance to reflect on  the day.

With the weather aside, it was a great day. I didn't have to work and I got to spend several hours just relaxing and hanging out with a very dear and awesome friend who I don't see nearly enough. She's such a wonderful and amazing person, even more so now that she's a mom.Just getting to hang out and chat made the day a great one. Despite being very tired thanks to yet another sleepless night, she just kept going, making sure Baby F was taken care of. I couldn't do it. Watching Baby F play and crawl around was great. He's adorable and highly entertaining but I don't know how she does it. She's Wonder Woman. I honestly don't think I'd have the patience and capability to be so selfless that's required when you're a mom. And she certainly has it in spades. I'm in complete awe of her (and her husband). They're amazing people and kick-ass parents :) And I can't wait to see them all again. But next time, the weather had better be much, much better!

Good Night!

Sarah

This is the only place I like seeing snow!

Dinner Out and a Return to Chaos

Well holy shit. You decide to take one night off blogging and you'd think I killed a puppy or something. Everyone's a critic.

It was a good day at work. It was my last day covering for Finance too. I'm back to my regular job tomorrow and the chaos that goes with it. I've really enjoyed the last week and a bit. It was rather stress free and a nice way to ease back into work after being off for almost 2 weeks.

With the help of Xtina, I also pulled off a great bday gift for Stephanee today. I can't say what I bought her just yet, in case she reads this tonight. It's her birthday tomorrow. She'll find out soon enough :)

I had a very lovely dinner tonight. I met up with one of my best friends and we headed out for an "adult dinner". No, we didn't go to the strippers. It meant that we went to Milestones, without her 8 month old son. This was her first time spending any real amount of time away from him. And her husband's first time being home alone with the baby for any real chunk of time. I've heard some horror stories from friends and co-workers before about people not being able to leave their babies for more than 5 minutes and one woman who didn't leave her kid alone at all until after it's first bday. I can't imagine doing that. Thank god my friend was much more relaxed than that, but I knew that she would be :) It was a bit of a short visit for us but it was great none the less. We got to catch up and I loved hearing about how amazing her son is and how he's growing. It's amazing watching her eyes and face light up when she talks about him. Her and her husband are amazing people and they're awesome parents too. But there wasn't ever any doubt that they would be.

Seeing as I'm returning to the chaos that is my office tomorrow, I should log off and get to bed. I'm going to need to be firing on all cylinders tomorrow. Plus it's Steph's birthday and I can't wait to see the look on her face when she sees her gift. Tee Hee Hee. I might need to find a cake too.....

Good Night!

Sarah

It's not my bday yet but I needed a cake photo.

Home - The Other One

I am back in Ottawa. My 2nd home. Cambridge will always be my first home, since that's where I was born and raised and where my parents live, but Ottawa is where I currently live and is a city that I quite love. So I am home, again.

My train ride was good. I got good news while on train #1 - it was becoming train #2 when we got to Toronto. Awesome. It used to do that and then Via changed their schedules and I used to have to lug my bags down into Union Station and get into line to come back upstairs an hour and a half later onto the Ottawa train. But seeing as my train #84 was morphing into train #44 in Toronto, this was good news. Even better news was that I was already on the right car and only had to move up two rows and across the aisle. My train from Kitchener has "free for all" seating as in "find whatever seat is empty and take it" while the train from Toronto has "assigned seating", just like airplanes. Despite the fact that I could remain on the train, I opted to get off in Toronto and stretch my legs and walk through Union Station. It's nice being able to do that and not have a huge amount of luggage with you. So I left my bags on the train and into the station I went.

This is where I got good news #2 of the day: the bathrooms on the departure level were re-opened! Union Station is under-going a major renovation project. As a result, the bathrooms on the departure level have been closed for over a year. This meant that you used to have to walk up the ramp, past the ticket windows, down a long hallway and into the "great hall" to find the can. Very annoying. But not anymore! The new bathroom is quite nice but the soap was a little tricky to figure out. A nice old lady told me how to work it. Go figure.

We left Toronto on time but kept running into "train traffic" and had to slow down. By our first stop in Kingston, we were 10 minutes late. The freight trains were causing congestion on the tracks. One rather long freight train that was on the track beside us in Kingston was actually blocking a crossing and appeared to had been like that for some time, judging by the huge line of cars at the crossing and watching them try to turn around. We ran into a switch issue just before Smiths Falls and were stopped for some time. The train ended up getting into Ottawa 50 minutes late. Not too bad.

And OH MY GOD! There's all kinds of snow here. It's crazy. I'll have to take a picture of the snow in front of my apartment building. It's crazy.

My plants were very happy to see me and appreciated the water I promptly gave them. I made a curry pasta and shrimp soup for dinner and had a nice, long soak in a hot bubble bath tonight. That's one nice thing about being back in Ottawa: I have my own bathroom :)

Mom made it home past the round-a-bout. She followed a large truck though it figuring that everyone would stop for it. I agree, that sounds like a solid plan. Mom and dad enjoyed some more of the banana bread tonight too, as did I. I managed to get out of the house with a couple of slices. Dad's on his own if he wants more though. I miss them already. Watching tv isn't the same without having one of them in the room laughing along with it. And as hard as it is for me to admit, I miss watching Duck Dynasty. My parents got me hooked on those red necks!

Anyhow, it's time for bed. It's been a long day and I have to get my ass out of bed for work tomorrow. I think I can survive one day of work this week. Atleast I hope I can. I know it's a bit of a gong show there right now but I'm not going to let it stress me out. Just before I got on the train this morning, my mom gave me some great advice. She told me "Just breathe". And that's exactly what I plan on doing.

Good Night! (or Good Morning depending on when you read this)

Sarah

My wonderful parents :)

More Adventure Shopping and Why My Parents Aren't Allowed To Pick Movies Anymore

I've had a very harrowing day.

This morning, my mother, who hates to shop and hates crowds says to me "I guess we'd better go to Costco". What? Are you serious? It's the Sunday before New Year's and it's almost noon. And you voluntarily want to go to Costco? Turns out my dad needed his pills, which happen to be at the Costco pharmacy. I get it.

Since I'm almost always up for an adventure, off we go. The parking lot was a zoo. Several people took it upon themselves to "invent" parking spots, despite the fact that there were lots of available parking spaces at the far end of the lot. I guess lazy wins out over legal and safe. Inside the store wasn't much better. People were going every which way and there were little mobs of people all over the store wherever there was a free sample stand. But we were on a mission. I was looking for a very specific desk calendar and we needed dad's pills. And we pulled it off. Not only did we manage to get out alive and without any issues of cart rage, I also passed up a poutine and hot dog and we were home in an hour. We also got my calendar, dad's pills, some sinus medication for me, a case of Bush's beans for my parents and a bag of Cashew Clusters. After our adventure, I made lunch for my parents and myself. My dad took two bites of his egg, ran upstairs and threw up again. He then thanked me for the egg, because he felt monumentally better. Wish I could say the same thing for the bath mats. They got washed this afternoon :) You know the saying "It's not over until the fat lady sings"? In this house it's "The flu's not over until the bath mats get puked on". Good going dad.

Mom and I baked a ham for dinner and I made cheesy crescent rolls to go along with it. My dad managed to eat something that resembled dinner and kept it down, so that's a good sign.

My parents then decided to torture me as only they can. It started out innocently enough. Mom said "Let's watch a movie". Dad said "sure". So mom starts reading off the movie titles that they own (which is about 15 movies in total). I keep saying "no". I passed on one called "Superhero Movie". You guesses it. It's a spoof on Super Hero movies. Next thing I know, my dad's asking to read the back of it. Crap. Mom decided it would be good because it has Leslie Neilson and Pamela Anderson in it. I tried to explain to her that that wasn't a good sign but she didn't listen. So they decide to watch it. Those are 75 minutes that I'm never getting back. It spoofed Spiderman, Batman, X-Men, Fantastic Four....etc. It was brutal. Which means that my parents loved it. During one scene, which involved the two main characters, trying to have a romantic love scene, during which a lot of farting is coming from the main character's aunt, I thought my mom was literally going to fall out of her chair, she was laughing that hard. I think I had more fun watching my parents than I did watching the movie. I think I'm going to have to walk my ass to the store tomorrow and pick out some movies for the evening. If I leave it up to the other two, more brains cells might be killed needlessly. I'm also pretty sure that the end of the movie stole a scene from the movie Airplane too. Anything that references Airplane isn't good. And it had horrible, horrible sexual references through out the entire thing as well. And seeing as I was watching it with my parents, it was just that much worse. I think I'm scarred for life.

On that note, it's time to pop some sinus medication and head to bed. The damn snow plow woke me up at 2 something this morning after it decided to go down our street 5 times. Seriously! It's a small street. WTF??

Good Night!

Sarah

My mom took this very pretty photo today - it's her Christmas cactus and icicles in our front window.

When Shopping Becomes An Adventure Sport

I was awake before anyone else this morning. Partly because I was cold and partly because I was sore. The new mattress that my parents bought a few years ago, for the bed in my old room, is a little on the hard side and my back really doesn't like it. So for the first 3-4 nights here, I wake up in a bit of pain. My mom was up shortly after me. She claims that the reason was that she didn't want me downstairs alone in case I snooped through the presents. Ha! She's the biggest snoop of us all.

When my dad and I got back from shopping yesterday afternoon, we hadn't been outside of the car for more than a minute and I looked over and someone had her head sticking out the front door, trying to see what bags we had. She did the same thing today but from the front hall window this time.

I went shopping with both parents this morning (and we only lost dad once) and then we had a nice lunch together, after which we dropped off my mom at home and dad and I ventured out into the wildest shopping place of the day: Walmart. The place was a zoo. My dad was even blown away by just how bad it was. He didn't think it would be that bad. He really has no grasp on Walmart shopping. The line up for the photo studio was down the Christmas cookie aisle, the seasonal and toy departments were like a giant ring of bumper cars, but with karts, the bakery was sold out of mincemeat pies and the 1 main thing that we went there to find, was no where to be found. Thankfully we were able to find the rest of the stuff we were looking for.

After Walmart, we hit up Shopper's Drug Mart so I could mail off my last present - headed to Calgary. The lineup there was actually pretty short and quick, so that was nice. Next we headed to Zhers so we could get the damn mincemeat pie (which my dad couldn't see, despite looking right at it!) and my dad got my mom some pretty holiday flowers too. Our final stop was Food Basic for a gift card and then we came home.

After dinner, dad started on a wrapping spree which seemed to be a success despite the occasional swearing I heard coming from the dinning room. For me, it was arts and crafts time. My friend Stephanee was making a Christmas tutu for her niece and I decided to make one too. For the record, I hate tulle. That stuff is terrible to work with/cut! Somehow I managed to get it all cut and believe it or not, I made a tutu. It actually looks pretty cute. I think it might be a bit on the big side for my niece though. We'll find out on Monday I guess.

All in all, it was a good day. I have finished all of my Christmas shopping and just have to worry about wrapping everything now. I can sit back and relax and not stress about any last minute things.

I think it's getting close to bed time. My mom got tired of me bitched about how cold it is and she shut my bedroom window this morning. My room is still cold, it's just not damn cold anymore :)

Good Night!

Sarah

Christmas 2008 - this is what I have to do to keep warm at home!

Viva Puffs

I did something very scary tonight. I talked to one of my parentals about my debt situation. It's scary in the fact that it means that A. Have to own up to just how much trouble I'm really in and B. Opens up the possibility for them being disappointed in be for being so stupid to get in such a mess in the first place. The only defence I have is that very little of this debt is new. Most of it is from 10+ years ago and it's just been following me around. And a part of it is from 5 years ago when I ran into some problems in Calgary. Just take a look around my apartment and you'll see that I'm defiantly not using them anymore.

Unfortunately, the conversation did very little to ease my worry/anxiety. In fact, I'm pretty damn sure it made it worse judging by the rather large knot that has now taken up residence in my stomach. It's going to be a long week. I can feel it.

Moving on. I had something happen to me yesterday that I've been sitting here thinking about all day.

Have you ever smelled something or eaten something or seen something out of the corner of your eye that suddenly filled you with such a strong memory or emotion that you thought that you'd been transported to a different time/place? That happened to me yesterday.

While out shopping at the Bulk Barn, I saw that they had holiday flavoured Viva Puff cookies on sale. I hadn't had a Viva Puff in I don't know how long, so I decided to get them. For those who don't know, they're a cookie that has a cookie bottom, with a raseberry jam filled marshmellow on top and then the whole thing is covered in chocolate. There's a version where there's fudge instead of raseberry inside too. These ones have a green mint section inside too so they look like a candy cane. Anyhow, yesterday after lunch, I decided to have one. As I bit into it, I suddenly had a very vivid flashback to my childhood. I was in my Gram's kitchen, eating a Viva Puff. My grandmother loved those cookies. I'm pretty sure the only time/place I really ever at them was at her house. We used to peel the chocolate off the outside and then peel the marshmellow part off the cookie and eat the cookie and then eat the marshmellow part. It seems that my Gram was very good at deconstructing cookies. Remind me to tell you about what she and her friend Mrs. Foster did with a bag of Oreos once... Back to my story. It was such a vivid memory. I could see every detail in the kitchen and even smell what the house smelt like and I could feel the happiness wash over me. And all I had done was bite into a cookie. Of course I then got really sad and tear welled up in my eyes because I was then hit with how much I miss my Gram but for those 30 seconds in between, it was incredible.

The mind really is such an amazing thing. I can't believe that I have such stunningly real memories tucked away in there. While it does make a little sad to remember, the happiness of the memory and the smile it put on my face was well worth the sadness around the edges. One of my all time favourite memories is one that my Gram gave me. My grandparents house was at the top of a hill. Their back windows looked out over the city. When we were little, at night, my Gram would hold my brother and I up in the kitchen by the sink so that we could see out over the city and look at all the twinkling lights. "Fairy Land" she called it. Even as a teenager, I'd stand at the sink in the dark kitchen with my Gram and look out over Fairy Land. Even now as an adult, whenever I'm somewhere high up and I can see out over whatever city I'm in, I'm still smile and think to myself "Fairy Land".

Who knew that cookie could be so powerful?

And just a quite side note to a family friend who knew my grandparents very well and who is mostly likely in surgery at this very moment: Mrs. B - my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. I hope everything goes for the best and wish you a speedy recovery.

Good Night!

Sarah

My balcony in Calgary, with "Fairy Land" in the distance.

35 Years And Counting...

No. The title of this blog does not refer to my age. It's close, but not quite.

Tonight's blog title is the number of years that my parents have been married. They celebrated their 35th Wedding Anniversary today. I wasn't there to celebrate with them but I will be seeing them next week so I'm going to take them out for a nice lunch while we're in Stratford as a belated gift.

In a time when marriage really doesn't seem to mean much anymore, hitting 35 years together is rather impressive. But then again, so are my parents. Looking at them, they are so different but fit together so well. Perhaps it's the differences between them that has kept them together for so long? I definitely get my stubborn streak from my mother and I get my peace-making skills from my father. I get my creativity from my mom and my outgoing nature from my dad. I get my bumpy toe from my mom and my broad shoulders from my dad. I get my courage from my mom and my love of rock and roll from my dad and I get my inner strength from both of them.

My childhood was great. We didn't have the biggest house on the block or the newest toys, but I don't remember wanting for anything. We took a family vacation every summer. Sure, I never got to go to Disney World, but I got to explore the country and see amazing sites and visit family. Some of my most cherished memories are of the crazy things that happened while on family vacation. Like the time our dog skipper took a dump in the back of the station wagon a mere 3 minutes after we left the house. Or the time we had run out of water on the way home so we gave the dog Kool Aid to drink. There were multiple incidents involving my father and a raccoon, including the time one stole his blueberry pie and threw a bun at him. One year in New Brunswick I made the chewiest brownies ever...because I forgot to add the eggs. I swear, they came out more like taffy than brownies. I'm pretty sure that's the same trip where my brother and cousin ate an entire tin of molasses cookies one afternoon. I've got to tour several mines, pet a porcupine, stand on the top of a few mountains, travel on several different ferries, drive through the tail end of a hurricane, watch a meteorite shower, seen a Sleeping Giant, dug my own amethyst, got up in the middle of a storm in the middle of the night to rescue a row boat, mistaken a freight train for an alien spaceship and have collected thousands of memories that I wouldn't trade for all the money in the world......all thanks to my mom and dad.

Over the years, I've seen them fight, cry, laugh and love. No matter what I've done or where I've gone, they've always had my back. Through all the bad times, the good times, the hard times and the simpler times, they stuck together and pulled us all through. I am so incredibly blessed to have them as parents.

I want what they have. That's the kind of relationship I want to have with a mate. One that stands the test of time. One that two people are willing to invest the time and effort into making work. No quitting, no giving up when the going gets rough. Perhaps I need to stop looking for someone who's like me....perhaps I do need to be looking for an opposite. Like my parents. Their differences make them unique, but they still have a lot of common ground between them. And compromise. They're pros at it. I love watching them watch hockey. It consists of dad watching hockey while mom reads her book...until there's a fight, at which point mom looks up and then goes back to her book with the fight's done. And I'm not sure how it happened, but mom somehow managed to get dad hooked on the books she was reading.

They are my heroes. They are who inspire me. Their relationship is what I strive for and hold up and the model. Maybe relationships like theirs don't exist anymore. But I'm sure not going to give up on finding out anytime soon. What they have is worth it. It's worth waiting for. I'm so happy that they found each other and I can't begin to express how fortunate I am to have them in my life.

Happy 35th Wedding Anniversary Mom and Dad. I love you more than words can express. May you have many, many, many, many, many more years of happiness together ahead of you.

Good Night!

Sarah