go time!

It's happening! The wedding is upon is. People are arriving today, and we're heading to the island tomorrow morning. We've had such a great time this week with friends and family and going for lunch and dinner and to little parties - it's the best! I guess it's not right to say that we should get married more often - pah! Maybe we should just get together and have parties more often, but we'd need to physically be in town for that to happen (for us at least) so on that note - I can't really comment. Here are a few pictures from goings-ons this past week or two... it's been a great two weeks!

at the Coldplay concert - it was awesome!!



Up at Thetis, a lone egg... sad but beautiful...

one of the many murals in Chemainus - such a cute town!

getting ready for a party!!

with Desj, one of my all-time best coaches - volleyball (not beer) that is...

a beer sampler at Park Royal's Steamhouse (or Taphouse?) - my favourite was Dead Guy Ale

fly fishing in the back yard...

blurb from the ferry

Questions: Why is the ferry from Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay more expensive than the ferry from Horseshoe bay to Nanaimo? To state the obvious, it’s the same route (no?), but from the island to the mainland costs almost $25 more. BC Ferries… Next question: Why isn’t there a little beeper on your keychain/car-unlocker-thingy that beeps or buzzes or flashes when your car alarm goes off? How are you supposed to know that your car is either being broken into, or bothering sleepy, stay-in-their-cars ferry passengers? I’m sure there is such a thing, but I think that all car alarms, when they go off, should send a signal to the person that the car belongs to. (Do car alarms even work? Steve made a good point that they go off so often that most people ignore the noise... but don't ignore the jackass that comes to turn it off after 20 minutes of obnoxiously annoying squeals.) And that’s it, I think I’m done with questions for now.

We spent the past two days over on Thetis, mostly meeting with people (asking questions, answering questions), and ferrying wedding goods – beer, coke, water, beer, coke, booze. It is gorgeous over there, and I can’t even believe that we’re a week away – a WEEK! We are crossing things of the list though: we met with the DJ dude and gave him all of our playlists, we met with Devon the photographer (check out her blog and site – great photos), we met with Bob the marriage commissioner (went over the ceremony) and finally, we met with Arlene, our contact at Overbury Farm Resort, the place where we’re getting married. Even though the last two days have been busy, the levels of commotion and wedding madness to-do lists and errands and last minute things haven’t been so, well… crazy. Perhaps it’s not last minute enough yet for these last minute things, but I’m hoping that we’ve got most of it taken care of. Either that or we’re forgetting about a handful of schtuff… hmmm… Anyways, it was great over there and we are feeling ready. The weather was a bit cool in the mornings and evenings – and we checked out the weather for July 4th (the first time I did so), and Steve found a site that predicted sun for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd, rain for the 4th, and sun for the 5th, 6th and 7th. Clearly this information must be wrong – fingers are crossed for sun on the 4th!

a weekend of action...

Leaving Winnipeg - at Kenaston and McGillvray

Somewhere between Calgary and Vancouver - beautiful!

The last week has FLOWN by… it’s crazy. A week ago yesterday we left Winnipeg – and here we are in Vancouver wondering just exactly what we’ve done with the past eight days. Calgary was great – it was great seeing family and friends, and breaking up the drive was, well, essential. And Vancouver has just been aaaawesome. We got here Thursday night, and Friday was my birthday! Eeeeek I’m 31! Anyways, it didn’t totally feel like my birthday – there’s so much going on… but it was a perfect day. After a fabulous early swim in Kits pool with my mom, sister Claire and Lolis Brymer (fabulous in part because I didn’t end up on the bottom of the 137 metre spread), Steve, Sarah, Claire, Mom and I had a super yummy lunch (Savary Island bread is the best) chez nous. Steve and I did some errands in the afternoon and then – why is this all about food? – we came home to make pizza for a get-together with my cousin Mandy and her family. My mom totally duped me into thinking there was no cake, and … I won’t lie – I was slightly disappointed. Over coffee at Park Royal earlier in the afternoon I even contemplated (out loud) making my own cake; Steve disapproved and bought me a cookie instead. Sure, cookies are good/great but they are no substitute for cake. Anyways, he was in on the whole cake thing and knew all along that dessert wasn’t just strawberries, but a vanilla with chocolate icing double-layered torte as well… yum! After stuffing ourselves silly (or immobile), we made our way to Lighthouse Park for an after dinner stroll to THE ROCK, the lookout where Steve proposed two years ago. On our way back to the car after sunset we had to laugh – on the Friday night of my 31st birthday, we were slowly walking through a dark North Shore park, happy to be full and ready for bed – slighty different than birthday agendas of past years. I was thoroughly spoiled with gifts… yay for presents! Steve got me tickets to see Coldplay on Sunday night, and they were amazing! It was such a great show, and our seats were pretty sweet – at the edge of row 23 on the floor… !!! Sandwiched in between these two nights of fabulousness was yet another one – my friends organized a stagette for me, and we had a great time. Sister Sarah and MOH/best friend Linds orchestrated a dinner at Hapa Izakaya on Robson followed by a stint at Ginger, and then the night-finisher at Lola’s in Kits. There were twelve of us, and it was so fun to have all of my friends – all of us – together and having a great time… the wedding is going to be so fun! And I won’t have to wear a spiky wig. And that’s it for now – we’re heading over to Thetis tomorrow to do a Costco run and pick up the beer…. Only 11 days to go!!!
At Lighthouse Park on Friday


And then there was cake!

Happy Father's Day! Lunch together...

The girls on Saturday night - so fun!!

All sassed up on Saturday night - the wig came off between Ginger and Lola's

Ready to go!! We got some strange looks when we stopped for coffee at Park Royal...

long drives...

Ugh, what a long drive. It took us 12 hours plus to get from Winnipeg to Calgary, and even though it was sunny and beautiful, it was also monotonous - Sascratchandyawn proved, yet again, to be a bit of a bore. But, we arrived safe and mostly sound, and just in time for dinner chez Steve's sister and her husband, Erin and Fred. We've had two days to break up the two big drives, and are heading to Vancouver tomorrow morning bright and early. We haven't had too much going on here, which is a nice break from the busy-busy of the past week in Winnipeg, and of the madness that is yet to come. Steve and I went for a run yesterday morning, and I was super into getting moving and getting a good workout after sitting in a car for so long... and that's exactly what we got. We ran up the McHugh Bluff stairs twice, and up until just now I thought that was not so shabby - I mean, I felt extremely shabby sucking wind all the way up the things but after googling them it appears that two sets of stairs is just dinky. On a forum on beyond.ca (never been to this site - google led me there), there's a workout for 10 sets of stairs, TEN! Eek. Anyways, post two sets of stairs workout, we were wiped. We dragged ourselves out of the house to check out liquor prices; we thought it would be cheaper to buy here than in BC but it turns out we were wrong. We did some errands, cruised around and then met up with Erin back here before heading out to dinner, yum. After downing a super delish salad at the Cactus Club, we met up with my sister Claire, her boyfriend, and two friends for a drink or two and that was it! Now... it's grocery time. We decided on our way here that it's absolutely necessary to travel with sandwiches and/or buns - food is critical on long road trips... so it's time to stock up again for tomorrow. Only 17 days until the wedding!!!

on the move!

And we’re on the move. We are on our way our West to get marrrrried! We’ve been busy this past week, with packing, cleaning and decisions. We met with a realtor on Wednesday night to talk about the house – we know that we’ll move to Ottawa at some point in the next year, but haven’t been (and still aren’t) sure exactly when. This means selling the house we have in Winnipeg, and looking for something in Ottawa… eek. So, meeting with the realtor made it all real, especially because we decided to put the house on the market – eeeeek again! So we organized, cleaned, packed … we thought it would consume the final three days we had in the city, but it didn’t. Steve went golfing on Friday morning, and I played in another beach tourney on Saturday – and skipped out on the playoffs to meet friends for a bbq – so we’ve had time to enjoy our last weekend. But it’s been strange! Having to say goodbye to our house that we love… if we could pick it up and move it we would, and if we could stay here, stay in it – keep it – we would. However, because the men’s national team moved, we don’t really have much of a reason to stay in Winnipeg, so we’re won’t. And now we’re on our way to Calgary and Vancouver – less than three weeks to go!

i love sports!

There's just something about competing and goals and dreams and ultimate accomplishment in sport that I just love. We've been watching a lot of hockey, and there's a commercial that they're running that gives me the chills big time - I (wimp) could almost CRY watching it! Sheesh. I'm not the biggest hockey fan... but this - I love it.



What I do not like is flinging flanging Kobe Bryant. Okay, correction - I hate hate hate his attitude. That attitude in sport (or anything for that matter) is just so ugly to me. So, we're watching some basketball... but I can't handle watching him. He's good, just way way WAY too full of himself for me to handle. I wish we could be playing more basketball right now but it has been so ridiculously chilly here - sports outside are a no-go. It's supposed to get nice by the time the weekend rolls around again, and I'm hoping that it does - beach volleyball in 10 degree weather is the exact opposite of fun. Anyways...

Sooo we've been busy, but things are winding down a bit. We've been doing a fair bit of house stuff - taking down old supremo-ugly chandeliers and putting up new light fixtures, fixing the doorbell, painting things, finishing a bathroom etc. etc. Wedding stuff is steady but there's nothing major to do... at least I don't think there's anything major to do... eek. I hope we're not forgetting anything. We just can't believe that there are only 25 more sleeps until the big day! A slightly overwhelming factor that we're throwing into the mix of goings-ons is the impending move to Ottawa. We don't know when it's happening, we don't know where we're moving exactly... but we know that it's going to happen. I'm excited to move to Ottawa - I feel like we're always so all over the place that it doesn't really matter where our home base is but I know that we need it, that I want it... and that I want it for longer than a month. We've only really been here in our home, sleeping in our bed for one month - I don't want to leave! So, more stuff to figure out. Looking on MLS is fun though; it's fun to look at affordable places, really nice places and REALLY nice swank places. It has made us appreciate what we have here even more: an affordable house that we adore in a city that we've made our home. I definitely don't hate Winnipeg (heard that song - the I hate Winnipeg song ("One Great City") - this morning by the Weakerthans), but I'm excited for all that's coming up - moving, marriage... all of it!

wooooooow....

So I've got a couple of "wows" for you. First of all, yesterday's high (temp) was apparently a record low of NINE DEGREES. And we saw people basically putting their plants to bed - covering them with sheets - because of the frost warning due to an overnight low of minus two. Can weeds freeze and die? Probably not, so we're all good. It just sounds wrong to say "at least it's not snowing" - it's June! I want summer. Or any other season that winter (or fall).

The second wow is this: for the past two days we've seen pelicans - pelicans! - in our back yard. Crazy! On Thursday we saw a group of four of them, dipping down at the same time, big beaks and wide wings and all, and yesterday saw a group of TEN of them (!!) cruising around the pond behind our house. They are so beautiful and so huge... a really neat thing to see.




I'm applying the last wow factor to the movie we saw last night - Up, in 3D. I'm pretty sure that Pixar animated films are my new favourite genre... it was amazing! Again, not a kids movie - there were definitely some scary parts - and not one for the faint of heart either... I'm pretty sure that I cried about three times. It was incredibly sweet and imaginative and reminded me of several different kids books (in one way or another), such as James and the Giant Peach and The Little House. Since there weren't any sports on TV, and because we've had a busy week (and busy day), we decided to opt for dinner and a movie instead of working on our to-do lists. But, today we're back at it - I'm just not so sure how much work I want to be doing outside... it's cold!!

30 days!

One more month! AK! There's so much to do and so much that we aren't doing. Well... we're busy, but somehow just not getting everything that needs to get done done - is this life? C'est la vie? We've both spent some time on the golf course this week - so, er... we can check that off the list - Steve had a tee off time of 7:30am on Tuesday (groan), and I volunteered for Variety at a tourney on Tuesday and again yesterday. They were both pretty long days, full of schmoozing and the Variety schpeal. Tuesday I worked the hole-in-one contest: "You could win this faaabulous refrigerator!" This line was almost undoubtedly followed by a chucklechuckle, guffawguffaw followed by "Does it come full of beer?" chuckleguffaw. We had no winners. Yesterday I started at the beer hole - yes, we were popular girls giving away free beer - and then was moved to the slightly more low-key WATER hole. Man, was it ever boring! The highlight of my day (post beer hole) was when I was coerced into driving a ball and actually got the sucker all the way down the fairway! I am NOT a golfer and only know this golf lingo from a few summers of volunteering... but wow! It was exciting. Perhaps not so exciting as to rope me into spending hours and weekends on a golf course but ??

Anyways, I have to share this oh-so-typical conversation that I was having with the only other volunteers that stayed for dinner, Maureen and Kristen. There was this big piece of meat prime rib fanciness for dinner, and while we were waiting for dessert we got to talking desserts - typical, right? So we're sitting there, kind of waiting and wondering what it will be when Kristen says something to this effect: "I hope it's good. It better be good - if it's not I'm for SURE stopping at Sweet Tops." I had no idea what Sweet Tops was, but got the low-down: it sounds like the BEST ice cream ever (possibly the most caloric ever) - waffle cone full of the ice cream of your choice, rolled in peanuts, dipped in chocolate sauce and covered in caramel. Wow. Anyways, so that conversation set the dessert bar pretty high, and Kristen said, with a roll of the eyes and a heavy sigh (and seriously too), "It better not be cake." Me: "Ooh I looove cake!" Kristen: "Ya, but sometimes the icing you know, you never know - the icing can really ruin the cake." Me: "Yup, you're right, there's a lot of bad icing out there." This is the point at which we actually heard ourselves - and realized how intently and intensely we were talking about the ever so serious ever so important issue of dessert. Is it any surprise that the only man at the table was on the phone? It reminds me of a small misunderstanding a group of us had houseboating a few years ago in the Shuswap.

A group of ten of us - ten girlfriends - rented a houseboat and took to the waters with the sole intention of having a great time together. There were magazines, blankets, hot and cold drinks, hot and cold alcoholic beverages, and we were set for a great time - rain or shine. We were NOT interested in meeting guys (most of us were taken), or hanging out with guys or even seeing guys - this was a girls weekend and we were there to enjoy time together. SO! When Rae the Captain got a radio message from a group of dudes - university guys - asking if they could approach and tie up with our vessel, we all said NO! No thank you please leave us alone. The conversation continued as static to most of us until their captain said, "We've got cake." Well... done and done you are welcome to approach us with your cake - I'm not even kidding that this is what happened - and they were on our boat within five minutes. And within those first 10 seconds most of us - who were up on deck awaiting the cake - had asked about it and... the answer was this: "Cake? We don't have any cake - we have a keg." Talk about the ultimate disappoinment... And that was it. We were infiltrated and there was no cake. The moral of the story is that cake seriously trumps a keg... and women love cake. YUM!

And to finish on a complete tangent, if you haven't seen this commercial (none of these guys brought cake)... check it out. It's hilarious...

another great weekend!

What an awesome weekend! It flew by (as time does)… but it was great. Speaking of that whole time flying thing, I received a great Christmas letter (that I opened last week – it’s been here at our house in Winnipeg since December) that started something like this: “Yesterday Barb and I got married. Yesterday our son was born. Yesterday I coached my team to an NCAA tournament final, and just yesterday we were National Champs. It all just seems like yesterday…” It was a great letter, and a great way to emphasize how important it is to take advantage of time and of the present (because doesn't so much seem like "just yesterday?"). Anyways... last summer a good friend of mine started a beach volleyball company called Beach4Life, and their first event was this weekend – a doubles tourney, and it was SO MUCH FUN! Catherine helped me find someone to play with, and Patti and I had an awesome day - we went all the way to the finals! It was a loooooong tournament – we were there at 8:30, and didn’t leave until after we got clobbered in the final (no more gas in the tank – and our opponents were gooooood) almost 12 hours later at 8:00. It was a beautiful day – quite cold in the morning, but sunny with blue skies all day long… and I mean all day long. So ya! We came 2nd in our first tourney together and had SO much fun… I love it! Beach is so fun. Steve and I had made plans to go to Chris and Carla’s (friends that I visited in Greece) for dinner around 5:00, but clearly that wasn’t going to happen, at least not for me! Steve watched a few sets and I met up with him and our other friends after the whole thing was done; thankfully they’d saved me some food and I seriously enjoyed my dinner – burger and beer… perfect! Ooh, and Oreo ice cream for dessert. Yum.

Me and Patty

An almost action shot...

So, while I was out playing Steve was in working. We decided to address the ugly fireplace, and Steve was the one who did the job. Okay – I helped, but he did most of it. We were thinking of tiling over the brick, but decided to try the cheaper option first – PAINT… and it looks awesome. Check out the before and after:


Before... and After!!!


We’ve had a bit of a busy Sunday – our friend Tammy has been living with us for the past two weeks, and she moved into our apartment today, so I helped her move while Steve did handyman fix-ups. I helped the Tammers and then came home and vacuumed and swept and did some cleaning up around here… and made dough for pizza for dinner. Our night – or evening – lives have been totally revolving around sports – namely hockey and basketball. (I guess that’s all there is right now, no?) So we’re watching hockey tonight and hmmm… I guess there isn’t a hoops game on. I am SO happy that Orlando is in, and hope they can give the Lakers a run for their money. I’m definitely cheering for them – not a big fan of Kobe and his I’m-so-great team and their we’re-so-great attitude - bleh. Plus, I like Dwight Howard. But, for tonight, it’s hockey – hockey and pizza – and I can handle that!

Spring!

It was a beautiful day here - FINALLY! - but windy as the dickens (pah!), so it was no yard work for me! today. AOK. Actually, I don't really mind yard work... but meh. I went swimming instead, and then scrubbed the porch and made cookies at the same time. (Amelia Bedelia visual: scrubbing the deck with one arm, mixing cookie dough with the other.) I had an AWESOME swim - usually 300m is just about enough to do me in at the beginning, but I did 600m this time, and I'm wondering where this super-(for me)-swimming energy came from. I didn't eat anything out of the ordinary for breakfast, nor did I have an extra special sleep last night or anything - is it possible that I'm just getting better at swimming? I hope so... but won't count on it.

The past week, like today, has been great in terms of weather; spring is finally here!! The trees are green, the weeds are in full bloom (and spreading), and there are birds galore in the back yard. This afternoon I was doing some wedding stuff at the dining room table, and saw, out the window, two Canada geese and their wee yellow goslings waddle up the walkway beside our house. Cute! Other warm weather business - I had a great Sunday Sports Day: after Steve and I played basketball at a local outdoor court (I won the shooting games, he won the 1-on-1 - BARELY though... I shamefully admit that I lost a very significant lead in both games and lost... boo), I enjoyed a full two hours at some outdoor beach courts playing volleyball. It was awesome... beach vball is soooo so so so fun - I love it! And hmmm... what else... We've just been keeping busy with some house odds and ends - fixing and finishing rooms and cleaning up. Wedding planning is going going going; there are so many small things to do, and so many in progress things - like the seating plan or the schedule - that it's hard to feel like I/we can finish something and cross it off the list. Only 39 days until our wedding - EEEEEK!!!




2/3 cup melted butter
2 cups lightly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp hot water
2 2/3 cups flour
1 tsp each baking powder and baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
chippers!
375 - 8 minutes... YUM!

busy busy busy

Two questions: who knew shopping could be so exhausting and overwhelming, and why is Spring completely on hold? Okay... I can't admit complete surprise to either of these things but first of all, the weather is ridiiiiiiculous! A few weeks ago when I was in Winnipeg for two days, I was surprised to see complete middle-of-winter dead-and-emptiness hanging from the trees - there was not one sign of new life. And now, two weeks later, there is still no sign of spring on any of the trees in our back yard. I've been totally ready and totally prepared for the big spring yard clean, and the only yard work that I've done is bag leaves! It's May and I'm bagging dead leaves! Eep. At least we don't have to mow the lawn every other day, and at least there's no snow... for now. (How Positive Polly is that? Ugh - I want Spring!) A friend of ours, Carla, was in Dauphin over the weekend and there was SNOW there, and a lot of it. So, I can't complain. (But actually I can and I did.) And the shopping thing? We attempted to - only somewhat successfully - register yesterday. We were at The Bay for hours, going through the departments and trying to decide what we need and want, and it was exhausting. We went in blind - we had no idea of what we were looking for (or what we need or want), but now have a short list of stuff to look for at Home Outfitters (appointment tomorrow). We were both a teensy bit disappointed at the stock and selection at The Bay, but then again, we didn't visit the biggest store in the biggest city, so... whatever.

And so... Winnipeg! It's actually really good to be back. It's great to be together again and great to be getting stuff done. There's a lot to do around the house - the renters left it in great shape, but still - and the wedding business has left us with another full agenda. And on that note I should get back to the business. SO! Despite the bad weather, it's good to be home!

Thetis!

The view from the new porch - gorgeous!!

Thetis Island is beautiful. After a week of running around and Miss BusyInTheCity-ness (dentist appointment, doctor appointment, get marriage license, find buy return buy send bridesmaids dresses, look for buy shoes jewelry for the wedding, make change ferry reservations, meet with liquor store rep order wine, look for call go to dry cleaning places/cart around dress – decide $400 is too much to dry clean a dress, hang out with family and friends, swim, run, walk dog, exchange money, buy make send thankyoucards and more), it was a very welcome two days of relative relaxation. My mom, dad and I took the ferry over on Thursday night, and after a deLISH pub dinner – I had a burger and a Strongbow and it was absolute perfection – jumped on the small ferry over to Thetis. I had a few meetings on Friday, but they were the only two things that I had planned… which was lovely. I met with Arlene from Overbury on Friday morning, and got some details sorted out - music, flowers, cake etc. The site is so incredibly beautiful, I really can’t wait for everyone to spend a few days together there. They’ve done loads of renovations and work on the property and I can’t think of a better place to get married… yay. There is a vibe on Thetis, as there is on many other small islands, of peace and quiet and tranquility, and one can’t help but just almost immediately relax and feel lighter somehow – or, I don’t know, less stressed. Not that I’ve been stressed because I haven’t at all – just busy. Anyways, it’s so great being on the island, and both Overbury and my parents place are just so amazing – I love it. So the three of us worked around the house all day – Pops split logs, Maman was busy busy in the garden, and I did some gardening and shoveling and clean up at the waterfront – until 4:00ish. Bob, our marriage commissioner, and his wife Joyce came by for a glass of wine and some business, which Bob and I got out of the way pronto. He’s brand new on the job, and our wedding will be his second, so it’s new for both of us! It will be great though – it was nice to meet them, and enjoy the late afternoon sun on the new porch, hurray. And now, back to business. I’m on my way back into Vancouver for my last day in the city before heading back to Winnipeg early tomorrow morning. I don’t have too much on my to-do list – after a few errands and a quick pack ‘o’ the bags, I’m hanging out with my sister and going for dinner and drinks with friends. It might be a challenge to not compile a new batch of lists – there are more wedding to-dos, and the list for the house in Winnipeg will be long. I’ve had a busy, but fantastic time here in Vancouver, and for now I’ll just enjoy the company of some of my most favourite people in one of my most favourite places!

An abandoned hummingbird nest - with two eggs... mrrrrr...

Mom and Dad and Maggie doggers on the porch

Pops and his tree splitting...

Happy Mother's Day!!

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to my fabulous, best-in-the-world mom! And to Steve's mom Marg, and all of the other mother's (otha motha's!!) out there - family and friends and soon-to-be mom's... yay for all of you! And how awesome is it that this year, Mother's Day falls on the same day as my youngest sister Claire's birthday! Happy Birthday Claire!! Yay again. There are so many reasons to celebrate these days... I love it. Lindsey, my mom and sister Sarah threw me a SUPER fun shower yesterday and I was thoroughly spoiled with presents and goodies. It was so great to see my friends (I hadn't seen most of them since last October), and spend a relaxing afternoon in the sun on the porch in their company. We ate (duh), drank (duh), and played (at least I did) a fun game - and it went as follows. In order to open a present, I had to correctly guess Steve's answer to a variety of questions - I think there were 31 in total. Examples:

What is your favourite colour?
My guess: blue - correct!

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Australia/NZ - correct!

What is Heather's most annoying habit?
Unfortunately I got this one wrong and guessed a different annoying habit - my guess was leaving glasses with two sips of beverage left in them all over the house and his answer was that I hang things (towels, jackets, purses) on doors all over the house... ooooops.

And it goes on and on. To my credit, I got most of them right and was rewarded with feelings of relief and happiness as well as an impressive array of lingerie - sooooo fabulous! SO! It was super fun and I was seriously spoiled... thank you thank you thank you! And so, after two days of relative relaxation, the madness begins again tomorrow; there are new lists and old lists and I just want to cross stuff off and get it done. So, that being said, I'm going to finish this blog and go to sleep... I'll post pics later!

busy busy

Things have been so BUSY around here! It's great to be back in Vancouver - this city is so beautiful with the mountains, the ocean and all of the green. Like I said, I've been super busy doing wedding stuff - errands and running around, and trying to see and spend time with friends and family. I'm still a little bit jet-lagged - wait, not jet-lagged but travel-lagged - I've done way too much flying in the past week: Bucharest-Frankfurt, Frankfurt-Toronto, Toronto-Winnipeg, Winnipeg-Vancouver... I'm definitely glad that I don't have to see or get on a plane for an entire week!

So... with all of the busy-ness I've got a lot of things done: I found bridesmaids dresses (there are four: my three sisters and my best friend Linds), shoes (for me) and... the top ranked fait accompli goes to picking the wine for the weekend. My mom has been doing loads of research, and had collected a small smattering of reds and whites to try - tough work. So last night Poppa Osberg brown-bagged and numbered the six to-try reds, and with our neighbor Ken we sampled them... yum. Well most of them were yum, and we were able to narrow the six down to three, and came to some decisions - hurray (for both the wine, the drinking and getting something done!). Today will be less of a get-things-done day - my mom and friends are throwing me a bridal shower this afternoon - fun! I'm just super excited to see my friends - and eat - we're having deluxe sammers and ... I think ... cupcakes! But before that happens I'm hoping to find time to go for a run; I have new shoes that want to be worn, and I love being outside in the early-ish Vancouver morning...

a transition day?

The past couple of days haven’t been busy or stressful… but somehow I feel extremely overwhelmed. Okay, I was a bit stressed about traveling with my big (ish) dress, and about my heavy seven-months-filled bags, but everything worked out just fine. My friend Catherine picked me up from the airport in Winnipeg last night, and we came straight to the house, which, having been rented to undergraduate students (guys nonetheless), looks amazing. It’s clean and really… you wouldn’t know that people – three guys (did I mention that already?) – had been living in the place since last fall. Anyways, the house overwhelmed me (it still does a little bit), as does all of our stuff, and we don’t even have that much stuff! Maybe I can call this culture shock – coming from a smaller apartment in Constanta, where we’ve lived with a very basic set of amenities (one frying pan, two pots, one couch etc.) to a big house in Winnipeg with more space and more stuff than I know what to do with… at least for now. Plus, I can’t help but wonder what we’re going to do with the place and when we’re going to do it… it’s all a LOT. But whatever… it’s Eastern Europe to Canada and small apartment to big house culture shock. Besides the big house and all of the stuff, everything just seems so normal here, and maybe that’s because it is. Normal is good, but the spice of the almost-every-day piece of shocker news that one of us would come up with (Jim: “Some lady just peed in front of my building today! She just pulled down her stockings and peed! In broad daylight!” – the best example I can think of off the top of my head) was entertaining and hmmm… refreshing? Maybe not for Jim. Anyways… it’s great to be home.

And… in two months today…. we’re getting married! EEK! Most of the most important stuff is done – at least arranged, but there are still lots (probably more than I think – more than I know) of little things to do. I still need to find bridesmaids dresses (not a little thing), and have to figure out some of the details everyone is asking about: What are your colours? (I dunno!); What are you going to do with your hair? (I dunno!); What’s your veil going to look like? (Veil?) Hopefully I’ll answer most of these questions for myself in the next few weeks. After a couple of days here, I’ll make my way to Vancouver to see family and friends, and do wedding stuff.

I finished off my in-transition day with two absolutely fabulous things: yoga and sushi! YUM!! Ooh, I also did laundry today – socks in the dryer! and am planning a trip to the library (time allowing) tomorrow. So, besides tackling the Serious Must-Do To-Do list (change/renew car insurance, renew driver’s license, clean etc.), I am knocking some seriously good things off of my Ever-Present Always-There To-Do list: exercise, eat sushi and read… I love it!!!

Romania: it's a wrap!

I feel as though I should do a wrap-up-Romania blog, and answer some of the questions I’m getting: Did you like living there? What was it like? Would you go back? Etc. etc. So, here it is. I’m going to start with what I liked about living there and then move on to some of the, ahem, ummm challenges of living in a still-developing Eastern European country.

The thing I liked the most has absolutely nothing to do with anything Romanian, and that’s the fact that there was a big and fabulous group of Canadians there. It was so awesome having Tammy and Jim, Jen and Rowan and Stelio and Val there. It would have definitely been a much different experience without these people - especially Tammy; I don’t know how many times we said to each other, "Thank GOD you’re here!" – it would have been horrible without her there! Okay, and now on to things that I liked about Romania, more specifically Constanta. The weather was good, and I like being by the sea; people were, for the most part (at least once you talked to them), friendly and helpful. It was great that people spoke English, and that people wanted to speak English – I was definitely surprised at how well how many people spoke the language, and it helped us out a lot. I liked that it was cheap – the Euro goes a long way in many places, but a really long way in Romania; we could have a nice meal at a nice restaurant for no more than $30 or $40, and that’s including appetizers, entrees, wine… and sometimes dessert (yum). I really liked where we lived, as I could walk everywhere – to the grocery store, the gym, the sport hall and the mall. I also loved the gym, and loved being able to teach yoga; people there were so friendly and kind, and it was great to get some experience and confidence as an instructor. What else did I love… hmmm… Okay, now that I have to think about it maybe I should move on to what I did not like about the place.

The top spot on the list goes to two things, which both reflect attitudes unfortunately shared by many: self-importance, disrespect and disregard for others. The littering and the driving were my two least favourite things about living in Romania. People have very little respect/regard for public spaces; parks, streets, sidewalks and any area not privately owned or maintained is littered with garbage. It’s disgusting. There’s an attitude (I think) that people more lowly than those who litter – street cleaners, cleaner-uppers – will tidy up after them… and somehow, that’s okay. Also – the way people drive there is really unbelievable. People do whatever suits them, and if that involves driving on the wrong side of the road, running lights, creating new lanes in oncoming traffic to jump the queue of cars waiting for a light, that’s okay! This attitude of self-importance – rules don’t apply to me because I’m driving a Mercedes/Audi/Rover/whatever – is despicable, and I hate it. I can’t say I liked the roads or the sidewalks – I’ve talked about this already so no need to elaborate. I didn’t really like Romanian food, besides papanash of course! And Romanian drink? I never tried the Palinka or Ţuică , but heard that it was gross anyways. I didn’t like the situation with the stray dogs, and the fact that the whole idea of animal welfare is, well, non-existent is also horrible, and horribly unacceptable. I didn’t like all of the smoking, but hey, that’s Europe.

Anyways, like I said, what I hated most was the selfish, arrogant attitude shared by most – but not all – Romanians. In general, it seems like a country struggling to grow into it’s new capitalist shoes; people have money now, and status symbols (the car you drive, the sunglasses you wear) are more important than having a clean city park, or safe sidewalks for pedestrians and baby strollers. The government, of course, is struggling too – struggling to (successfully and transparently) provide infrastructure and services to the public. Corruption is rampant, and progress is slow. But, in any case, things are getting better, and as long as slowly is followed by surely… the quality of life will improve. I’ll leave you with a few classic Romanian pics…

Dogs crossing at the crosswalk...

Double-parking - by a horse and cart! And the poor horse - skin and bones... so sad....

Dacia: the classic Romanian car

How many times we both hit our head on this doorframe... (and the three others) - ouch.

Concrete apartment blocks

Nice sidewalk, no?

All-the-time construction/piles of debris on the road



And the best part: the people!

Tammy and Steve

My favourite people!!

Outside Club Wish: Arvis, Nik, Steve, Tammy and Sherisa - a great group!!

The guys: Steve, Nik and Sebas - cheers to a great season!