For those of you that didn’t know, Chris and I has our sights set on a Mediterranean Europe honeymoon in August. We were looking at flying in and out of Rome, taking a short cruise around the Mediterranean Sea to Greece, Turkey, Croatia, etc. and then spending the rest of our time along the Italian coastline and in the south of France. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it?
Well we’re still going – just not right away. Chris doesn’t get much paid vacation at his job and he wasn’t able to get any leave without pay in August, which really blows. So instead we’ve set our sights on sunny California. Neither of us have ever been and we’re getting pretty excited to go!
So far we’re flying into L.A. and bumming around there for a few days, then we’re heading to a $3 million beach house that we’ve rented for a week in Solana Beach for some California-style beach bumming and not thinking about weddings…. ever again! And then, well who knows… we’re thinking of sort of winging the rest of it. I most definitely want to catch some shows while I’m there, so we’ll see what comes up closer to the date. We’re there from August 3rd to the 16th and then it’s back to non-wedding-planning reality in Fredericton, which should be nice!
As for the Mediterranean Europe vacation, it’s still a go, we’re just thinking of going in sometime in the off-season next year. That way it’ll be easier for Chris to get leave without pay from his job and there’ll be less tourists in our way.
And now I leave you with what is possibly my favourite California-related song, California on my Mind by Wild Light. Lyrics not necessarily safe for work.
If you were to ask me what my favourite band is at different points in time in my life, I might have answered Sloan, The Beatles, or in more recent years Cold War Kids. But one band that’s stuck around for the last few years and that I think is definitely here to stay is The New Pornographers.
I could write on about their intricately catchy melodies and clever and fun lyrics, but I probably wouldn’t be doing them justice. They just rock. And roll. And everything in between.
And they have a new single out! Whee! Do yourself a favour and check them out. You won’t regret it, I swear.
Check out The New Pornographers’ new single Your Hands (Together) and look out for their new album Together in stores in May 2010.
I’m in Ottawa for the week for work. I don’t miss the city that much on a day-to-day basis when I’m in Fredericton, but when I’m here, I miss all the little silly things that I loved so much about living here. Hartman’s, Bridgehead, sketchos on the bus, UOttawa campus, awesome restaurants, Centretown doggies…
I especially miss all the amazing friends I made while living here. I’m on a wonderfully strict schedule of lunch with this person, supper with so-and-so, and late night coffee with this other person. It’s amazing. I’m exhausted but loving every minute of it.
And then this weekend I’m spending 100% of my time with my main lady Val. We haven’t seen each other ever since I moved away in December of 2008. I’m incredibly excited and fully anticipating not wanting to leave come Sunday.
So I’m a super indecisive person. I like to think that I’ve gotten better at making decisions over the years, but I’m still pretty indecisive.
I love tattoos, and I’ve wanted to get one since I was about 19. Well I always wanted to get one before then, but I knew better. Who knew what type of person I might become as an adult? What if I regretted the butterfly on my hip? (I would have.) I was always really good about tattoos as a teen. Piercings are another story, but I was good about tattoos.
So when I “became an adult” (whatever that means), I decided that I wanted tattoo of a tree on my arm. That was about four years ago. Chris is the one that suggested that I wait. Since I’m so indecisive, he told me to wait and see if I still wanted the same thing one, two, even three years down the road. And I did.
So a little over a month ago, after a wait of about four years, I got my very first tattoo! I’m feeling quite rebellious in a very stable-job-knitter-home-owner type of way. You know… Anyway! Here it is – my new tattoo. It’s inside my right arm underneath the crease of my elbow.
It was done by Shaun Martinson at White Lotus in Fredericton. I love it so much and am so glad that I waited to get this done.
When we were kids, my mom would tell my sister and I to think about what we would look like in a wedding dress before getting a tattoo. Well I’m now glad that next summer I’ll have a beautiful tattoo to complement my wedding dress on our wedding day.
Instead of recapping 2009 or being super elitist and letting you all know how morally superior I am because [these super obscure and indie bands] put out my favourite 10 albums of 2009, I’ll let you know what my 2010 resolutions are!
Behold, in no particular order:
- get more sleep (8 hours-ish a night)
- never sleep in past 10 am (so, to respect previous resolution, never go to bed past 2 am)
- take more photos (getting my brand new DSLR today! What what!)
- watch every single Dr Who episode before 2011
- try and waste less time online
- craft more (this will probably be a resolution every year for the rest of my life)
- take more weekend trips
- build better/stronger relationships with new Fredericton friends (making friends is so awkward, guys)
Well I think that’s a tall enough order for one year. What are some of your resolutions?
A year today I was sitting in Rachel’s apartment’s kitchen in Fredericton (eating a donair, might I add) with Chris and his dad, reeling in from a long day of driving a car and a U-Haul packed to the brim with all of our earthly belongings from Ottawa to Fredericton. A year ago tomorrow morning we were meeting my parents downtown Fredericton to get the keys to our new apartment and move in all of our stuff in a few hours (there is no messing around if my dad is involved – beware!) A year ago this week Chris and I were waking up every morning and saying how weird it was to be back in New Brunswick. A week from today it’ll be a year that I’ve been at my new job at NRCan.
It’s probably been one of the most emotional and eventful years of my life to date. A good year, but also tough in some spots.
Good in that we bought a house, both have found meaningful employment that we enjoy, got to spend lots of time with our families, are really enjoying living in Fredericton, have met lots of lovely nice people and have made some new friends. The year’s mostly just been tough because we missed our friends from Ottawa a lot, and still do today.
Whenever I sit back and think of all the changes I experienced in the last year, I kind of just want to have a stiff drink. Here’s to hopefully never having such a crazy year again! Cheers!
I don’t know what’s gotten into me lately, but all I want to do is knit. I love to knit, but have been pretty off-and-on at it in the last few years. All that’s changed in the last few months! I am now a MACHINE!
Now, for some showing off:
Clockwise from top left:
Pretty purple cowl for my friend Val (that I was supposed to knit her last Xmas… sorry Val!) - Black slouchy hat for my friend and co-op. student extraordinaire Kristie - Super warm brown mittens for myself - Fingerless mitts for my friend Sinéad who lives in Ireland - Brown slouchy hat for myself - Bee hat for Katelyn’s daughter Ella’s Halloween costume
So – yeah – machine, huh? It’s like the biggest compulsion ever. Maybe it’s somehow related to the colder weather, but all I can think about all day long at work is coming home and curling up on the couch with the pug to knit.
That pretty much sums up my views when it comes to Canada’s military. I support them, but I don’t approve of what our country’s making them do.
Tomorrow is Remembrance Day. Armistice. I’ll be perfectly honest in saying that while I’ve always been thankful to veterans and our military, I’ve never paid too much attention to the holiday. Sure, I always wear a poppy and observe the two minutes of silence at 11, but that’s been about it.
Last year whilst still living in Ottawa, I attended the national Remembrance Day ceremony for the first time. It was such a powerful and emotional ceremony that since then Remembrance Day has more meaning to me.
I won’t pretend that I’ve been touched by the war like others have been. I won’t pretend that I’m pro-military. I won’t pretend that I understand what past and current soldiers’ families feel on Remembrance Day. But tomorrow, I will be just as thankful as every other Canadian for all that our veterans have done for our country.
A lot of people do these types of blog posts, right? Well I’m going to give it a shot. Today, I loved:
Driving under an overpass on the highway on my way home from work this evening in pretty heavy rain. I love hearing the rhythm of the rain and seeing my windshield wipers chase it away, and then, all of a sudden, being under an overpass and there is a delayed break in that rhythm and the wipers are streaking across the windshield uselessly because of the obstruction overhead. It’s like time stops for an instant.
I hate driving in the rain, but I love those tiny silent moments.
I know there is a lot of hate out there for Twitter. I have a Twitter account. I’m not on there promoting my business. I’m not on there to network (although it sort of just happens). I’m not on there to have millions of followers. I’m on Twitter to share anything and everything about my life with friends, acquaintances and random strangers. I’m one of those stereotypical Twitter users who tweet about what they’re cooking and eating, and I’m not apologetic about it. If you don’t want to read it, then don’t follow me.
Well about a month ago I caught wind (on Twitter, obviously) of a Twestival event being organized in Fredericton – and they were looking for volunteers.
I figured the following: I love Twitter, I’m pretty new here, and volunteering is always something I’m looking to do more of.
Oh yeah, and raising money for charity = good.
So I signed up to help Susan and Tim, the organizers. A little over a week, a super generous outpouring of prize donations from the Fredericton community, and some super speedy event planning later, we had the first-ever Fredericton Twestival on Thursday September 10th.
Over 20 people came out (keep in mind that the Fredericton metropolitan area has only 85,000 residents), we had Marcel LeBrun, CEO of Radian6 come talk to the crowd about social media, and raised over $500 for the Fredericton Food Bank. Pretty successful if you ask this gal.
That pretty much sums up my views when it comes to Canada’s military. I support them, but I don’t approve of what our country’s making them do.
