Holiday Recap

Better late than never, right? I've just realized that I meant to get caught up on my posting from the Christmas season, but what with the engagement and all the hub-bub I almost forgot! But I'm here now and that's what counts right?

I worked the first week I was home visiting, but of course still managed to find fun stuff to do in the evenings. The weather really foiled a lot of plans, but I was still able to get almost all of my visiting in and still had a great time.

One evening three of my girlfriends (Kickboxing girls!!) had planned to go to Butchart Gardens for the Christmas display and a yummy dinner...but the snow was so bad that they actually closed the highway for a bit so we opted to stay in the city (Butchart is out in the boonies). We hit up one of our favorite Italian restaurants and had a great visit....even if our meals for some reason were only mediocre...weird. Our waiter got a good laugh at us all making sure we got our pictures with each other...and even offered to take one of all four of us.






This is pretty much how I had to dress every time I headed outside. Each day I did it to get my coffee fix though!

On the weekend my girlfriend threw her 4th Annual Gingerbread House party. Love it. I would have been sooo sad if I'd missed out but she made sure to plan it while I was home on vacay. What a girl. I stayed in Victoria a day longer than I might have had there been no house to build, but I wanted my house dammit. :)

Worked out perfectly since Saturday night there was a big blizzard and the weather on the Sunday was almost blizzard-like so I would have likely had some serious trouble getting up island anyway. Instead I was able to catch a ride with my hostess and her honey on the Monday, and the roads were lovely and clear for us (until we were about 20 minutes outside of our hometown and there was a crazy long detour due to a bad car accident). It was an adventure, and the view on top of the Malahat highway was incredible. It's not often at all that I've seen the Malahat covered in fresh, beautiful snow.

I took a few pictures of the snow at my Mom's just to show the insanity. This is Nanaimo people! Beautiful Vancouver Island where we rarely got much of a Winter, let alone ANY snow when I was growing up. And this year it just started dumped and is still really showing no signs of stopping. There was about four feet while I was there (and Mom told me that they just had another dump the other day that was so bad she couldn't get her car up her street for two days). I didn't realize that I was travelling all the way from Halifax in order to have to shovel my Mom's driveway. Nutters I tell you.

Oh, and this big bugger was built by our friend's adult son while he was visiting her....

Christmas this year was just the immediate family, and honestly at first I thought it would a bit weird and maybe boring. But it was fantastic! In fact, best Christmas we've had in years. None of my Mom's foster kids, no uncle's girlfriends, no extras...just us. Nice. Maybe we all felt a little closer because my Grandpa is showing signs of dementia recently and we were all glad to have him home, or maybe we're all just finally growing up! Even my younger cousins are both teenagers now and it's nice to have them be a part of the "adults" instead of the little kids just causing a ruckus. Any way you look at it, it was a really nice year.

It was a whirlwind of a trip and I'm glad for the downtime I got with my Mom over week I spent with her. There's something to be said for a couple of lazy, quiet days hanging out with my Mom. :)

I went back to Victoria for one night before my flight, and as much as I had grand intentions of trying to see everyone again before heading out I chose to enjoy a quiet night in just visiting with a bestest girlfriend again. It was what I needed after all of the activity. Next year I won't for as long, even if I have to suck it up and pay extra for my flights. 16 days was just too long to live out of a suitcase and rely on friends and family for rides. I guess these are the things you learn when you move away from home and have to start doing the visits...know your limitations!!

Having said that, I already miss everyone! Thanks to everyone that put up with me and helped me out. See you again next Christmas!!

Photos are Up!

I finally found the time to get the photos off my camera today. For such a picture-happy girl, I barely took any while I was home. I guess because it didn't technically feel like a vacation.

I am sooooo happy that I got a few pics of me and my Mom, and us with my Grandpa. Our family so bad for not getting photos together, so I was determined this time. There are very few photos of my Grandma with me and my Mom (if any) later in her life, and now that she's gone we regret it...so I wasn't about to let it happen again!

So take a scroll back through my vacation recap posts and see what I've added. :)

The Last Day

Gotta get this posted so I can move on to current happenings!

Sunday morning Tiff and I awoke to gorgeous sunlight streaming in through her hugeass condo windows. We slept way later than planned, but we must have needed it. Her new guest airbed was double thick and tres comfy!


We stopped and picked up the other Jamie on our way back to her old place...you know, the one I mentioned that is conveniently located right across from my favorite Starbucks. She joined us for her first coffee of the day, and left us to visit while she carried on with her move. (I would like to note that I offered to help her with the moving but she wouldn't hear of it because I was on 'vacation'.) Jamie and I sat and enjoyed our coffees for a while, then decided to head off for a walk to Beacon Hill Park.

It wasn't quite as nice as Saturday, but I was still all sunscreened up...and was able to wear my light hoodie to keep the burn at bay.

We checked out the Petting Zoo...which I haven't done in years. So many cute little stinky animals! Jamie gets right in there with the goats and makes friends with them. I'm more of a pat-them-on-the-head-and-then-admire-from-afar kind of girl. :) I still love the peacocks though...those have always been my favorite. We had peacocks in the city park in Nanaimo when I was a kid and they always seemed so out of place...very cool. And the zoo had just shaved the llamas, so they looked pretty hilarious. We did comment that they should call it an Eating Zoo though, because all of the animals seemed to be constantly stuffing their faces and not too interested in being pet.






After washing our hands thoroughly, we wandered through the park and headed for downtown. We walked along the waterfront in front of the Empress Hotel...there was something going on at the lawn of the legislature, but we never figured out what. Something to do with a lot of the marching bands that were in town for the next day's May Day Parade.

We hit up a little hidden shoe store so I could pick up some Converse for DBF. You may remember that I mentioned back before the move that he had a gift certificate to use up...I gave it to him for his birthday LAST APRIL...but of course it went MIA right before we moved....and then reappeared just a week before I went back on vacation. LOL. So I got his shoes, and of course a pair of sporty flipflops for myself. :)

After that we decided that lunch was in order, so Jamie suggested that we stop at a little place in Bastion Square so we could sit outside. We had grilled paninis, people watched, and listened to the musician that seems to always be there. Then we went and got ice cream....from the place that makes homemade waffle cones...heavenly!! That place always smells so freaking good...from a block away!

Then a little more window shopping and we decided that we had exhausted downtown, so went back to her place to just hang out and chat. Her hubby came home later with an extreme full body sunburn...so we laughed a little at him.... hehe.

By now, my friend Nicole (Robi) was back in town...and our other friend Keith had been texting me about dinner plans...so Nicole picked me up and we met up with Keith, his new girlfriend, and Tiffaney for dinner at my favorite soup place...Ferris'. Unfortunately, all of my stuff was still at Tiff's so I had no opportunity to change, fix my hair or add make-up...but such is life. It's a super casual restaurant, but I did feel pretty fluffy and windblown. Dinner was super yummy though...nothing beats their Chicken Penne Soup with rice dumplings...and I don't know how, but they make the best little tossed salad. I think it's all about the sunflower sprouts and lemon-feta dressing.

After dinner, we took Keith and his gf over to Tiff's new place. By this point, I was exhausted...and starting to get sick. Boooooo. I drank a ton of water but it wasn't really helping. It was getting late, so Robi and I loaded my stuff into her Jeep and headed for her place. My flight was at 7:00am and she was awesome enough to get up at 5am with me and drive me out to the airport. Plus, I got my final night's sleep in an actual comfy bed....so nice!

There was a lot of hugging and goodbyes that day. I hope it gets easier with each visit back, but I doubt it will. I guess this is what it's like when you move away from home.....

Saturday Sunburn

(I seem to be sooo into the title alliteration these days!)

So, of course, it wouldn't be a vacation if I didn't get burnt. Especially since it was the first truly nice weather I got to enjoy. And especially because I was wearing a wide-strapped top that would leave stupid tanlines for the rest of the season. LOL.

Saturday I had hoped to go for a hike or at least a really good walk through one of the parks, but as I mentioned, a lot of people weren't available so it didn't work out. My buddy Mikey and I did spend a good portion of the day together though.

Tiffaney conveniently lived (I say lived because she actually moved while I was there!) across the street from my favorite Starbucks, so Mikey and I met there for some iced coffee and catch-up time. Some kids were selling Krispy Kreme donuts outside so Mikey bought a box... you know "to support the kids". haha. Glad he bought them, cuz I only ate two...instead of me buying them and eating the whole box. I don't know what it is about Krispy Kremes, but they are so damn fresh and tasty!

We sat outside for probably an hour and a half so I knew that I was probably starting to get pink. After that, we wandered downtown to meet his girlfriend while she was on her lunch break...and then went down to the waterfront to get fish tacones (yes, more fish tacos...these ones with Ahi Tuna from Red Fish/Blue Fish...and they were the best!). While we sat on the pier eating, I knew that I was already burnt. My poor shoulders. Every. Freaking. Year.

After we walked his girlfriend back to work, Mikey had to head home and run some errands. I opted to stay downtown...first stop was to the drug store for sunscreen. :) Of course, after stopping in the mall to use the bathroom and put on the sunscreen, I ended up shopping and didn't really need the sunscreen after all. A lovely trip to Jacob, sent me out happy with two new t-shirts, a cute button down (in size small!) and a new skirt.

The sun had gone low enough when I came out to make it comfortable walking around...so I got another iced coffee and just wandered. I stopped into a store just to look around and finally found a pair of trouser jeans that fit perfectly. Murphy's Law: I tried on about 25 pair of those things here in Halifax, and one step into a Victoria store and the 2nd pair I tried was the winner!

Tiffaney had spent the day moving a few loads to her new condo and getting some running around done with her Dad. She wasn't quite done when I was ready to call it a day from downtown so I just went back to her place with a snack and read my book for a while. Good to get off my feet and just enjoy the silence. Later, Tiff's Dad and stepmom decided to get some Chinese food for the inaugural meal in her new place, so they invited me to join them out on her deck in the warm breeze with the pretty view. Lovely. We then spent the night in the new place...so fun to be there for such a big event for Tiff. Hello homeowner! (oh and when she saw my sunburn, she made me put on Solarcane...yup, that red!)

Fun with Friends

And now back to our belated vacation stories....

So it was a slow start Friday morning, a bit groggy from the wine and late night listening to crazy people scream and smash stuff. I took a long shower and mostly sat on the couch watching the kid play Xbox 360.

I met my bosses for a nice lunch downtown by the water. First truly gorgeous Friday afternoon of the year, so the patios were packed! I had some more yummy fish tacos...these ones were tiny, but oh so delicious. We had a good meeting, then I decided to just hang around downtown and see if I could find anyone that might get off work early.

I walked for a bit with my coworker until he had to turn off to go home and get back to work....haha....and then decided to head to Starbucks to get my caffeine fix. I mean, seriously, it's now 2:30pm and I still haven't had a coffee!! (Note to self: bring my own coffee to the kid's place). I gave my friend Jamie (yes, she's a Jamie, not a Jaime) a call on her cell, hoping she would answer because she works in the building that the Starbucks is in...but no such luck. But, as I stood in line waiting to order my beverage I turned around and there she was in line too! She actually had the day off but had been downtown shopping and just happened to stop in to have coffee with another friend. So we all chatted until her friend had to go back to work, and then Jamie came with me to LuluLemon to pick out some overpriced gymwear.

She had to head back home about an hour or so later, but as luck would have it my other girlfriend Rhyanon decided to leave work early, so she came downtown and picked me up. Perfect timing! We opted to go to her place and sit out on her front porch with some cold beverages. We chatted and caught up on all the news from the last few months, and enjoyed the sun without cooking in it.

Later, my other girlfriend Tiffaney picked me up and took me to pick my suitcase and stuff up from the kid's place. (The boy roommate was just getting home at the same time and he apologized profusely. I just told him not to worry about it. It wasn't really his fault and it wasn't his screaming that kept us holed up in another room. Shit happens.) Tiff and I then headed back to her place, changed our clothes, had a drinky-poo and got ready to go downtown.

We decided to head down a bit early so we could get a decent table and some dinner before our other friends showed up. We had hoped for a big group, but being the long weekend quite a few people were away or previously engaged. No biggie, I still got my girls Charmaine and Ingmarie, and a few others. All good fun! It ended up being a relatively late night of chit chat and a bit of wandering around...but it was soooo nice out, it was worth it!

Ingmarie & me

Me and Charmaine.

Me and Tiffaney enjoying our much beloved and needed Strongbow.

Toot! Toot!

Train ride!!!

I needed to get back to Victoria from Nanaimo, and since my Mom had already made the 3-hour round trip to pick me up I didn't want to ask her to drive me back. And because it was a Thursday most of my friends were working, and I wouldn't have asked them to make that trip anyway. So I was just going to take the bus, but then I remembered that someone had told me I should really take the train sometime because it goes a different route than that same old highway that I've driven a bazillion times.

Well, am I glad I did! The weather had been dreary most of the week, but it cleared up and was beautiful on Thursday. The train wasn't super busy so I got a decent seat and didn't have to worry about room for my luggage or anything. (I only had one suitcase, but it's a dayliner and they don't have much room for luggage.) It is a 2 1/2 hour trip, which is an hour longer than going by car, but there are no stop lights, no chance of an accident blocking the highway, and best of all no driving for me! Just a relaxing time to sit back, listen to my iPod and read. Nice!

I arrived in Victoria for 6:00, and my friend Dave (lovingly known as "the kid") met me at the itty bitty train station downtown. It was gorgeous out, but we didn't feel like toting my suitcase around all evening, so we decided to grab a cab and drop my stuff off at his place. We had a nice evening of doing nothing planned.

After a bit of discussion, we decided that wine was needed for whatever we were going to do, so we went for a walk to the liquor store. On our way back, his roommates called and invited us to a BBQ at some other friend's place, so we decided that was better than the pizza we had been contemplating and took them up on their offer. They picked us up so they wouldn't have to wait for us to make our way over there...so we just took our wine and ciders with us.

It was a fun little gathering. One of the kid's roommates and I decided to save one of the bottles of wine so we could have it when we got home. I've met her before and she seemed down to earth so I thought it would be relaxing to just chill out with her and her boyfriend when we got back to the house.

Not. So. Much.

Holy hell. We got a ride back to their place around 11:00...and by 11:15 all hell had broken loose. The kid had poured everyone's wine, when for some reason the girl started going off on her boyfriend. He was just sort of sitting there, stunned. I'm sure they had been maybe arguing or something earlier, and something just set her off, but Jesus...I was sitting right there. The kid was out in the kitchen, and I was sitting just sort of trapped on the sofa sipping my wine, waiting for either her to chill out or at least move out of my way so I could get up. I could see the kid in my peripheral vision giving me the head nod to come to the kitchen, but she was right in front of me. Finally, she took a step forward and that gave me enough room to stand up and scootch past her and out to the kitchen.

We just skooted ourselves out to the deck, and thankfully the second door through their bedroom was open, so we went back in that way and across the hall to his room. Not exactly the stellar, relaxing visit we had been hoping for. I mean he is a young guy, so his room smells like a boy lives in it, and well a mattress on the floor is not exactly the place I like to sip my wine...but we sure as shit weren't going back out to the living room while those two were going at it. So, we turned on the radio and made the best of it. I mean, we still got to chat and catch up, but unfortunately we couldn't totally drown out her screaming.

Eventually we wanted the rest of our wine, and it had been like an hour so the kid went out and basically told them to shut the hell up. He actually picked the girl up (he's huge, she's not) and moved her out to the deck and told her to have a smoke and come back when she could come down...then he told his buddy to go out the front door and do the same thing. Glorious silence! oh, but only for about 5 minutes. Then they started again.

About a half hour or so later, we heard something smash, then some more yelling and maybe some crying. I have to say, that we barely heard him. I think she just opened up and unleashed and couldn't contain herself. I felt for both of them. He was just trying to diffuse everything and eventually snapped. Sometime around 2am, it finally got quiet. We were worried that the guy was going to be sleeping in the spare room, which would leave me bedless, but he wasn't...so either he actually left because he was so angry or they decided that they should sleep in the same room because they knew the kid had a guest that had already been promised the spare bed. We don't know, but I don't care because I got a bed!

The next morning, the girl had left an apology note. She felt like an ass. The kid was still super pissed off but he did calm down later. I was fine. Not my friends, and made for a good story. Who knows how boring our night might have been otherwise?!! At least I had wine. :)

Oh, the smash was one of their brand new bar height dining chairs. Ooops. Nice, right?

The crazy roomies did have three exceptionally cool cats though....

Hello from Nanaimo!

Finally, a few minutes to update!

Friday was a LONG day. DBF took me to the airport at about 2:00 for my 3:30 flight...I had already checked in online, so this gave us time for a romantic Burger King lunch before I had to go. I almost waited too long to go through security...it was backed up more than we thought...my plane was already pre-boarding when I finally got to my gate. All good though, it just meant I didn't have to wait around...just had time to get my bottled water and the new People magazine.
I ended up having a touchdown stop in Toronto, where I wasn't supposed to deplane...but there was a sick lady that the paramedics had to come take off so they told us all to deplane for the 20 minutes. Of course, this led me to spend $25 buying Starbucks and a new book (The Other Bolyne girl).

I only ended up reading barely two chapters once back on the plane though because I was watching a marathon of What Not to Wear. Thankfully the middle seat in my row was empty so my seatmate and I used the seat for our jackets and books and crap. I love it when that happens. I was in the very back row, which turned out to be nice and fairly quiet...and there was a preggo chick in front of me that was pretty hilarious with her peeing every 15 minutes and the big bag of snacks she and her hubby were sharing.

I had to change planes in Calgary and by then I was getting pretty friggin tired....it was like 11pm my time and my ears were plugged from two ascents and descents. But, almost there....
Calgary to Victoria is only 1 hour 12 minutes, plus a bit extra for parking the plane and stuff. My girls, Tiffaney and Nicole (aka Robi), picked me up and took care of me back in town with a slice of pizza, homemade nachos and a can of much needed Strongbow. We stayed up until midnight chatting and catching up, but that was 4am for me so we called it a night.

8am the next morning, my body started thinking it was noon, and the jetlag kept me awake. No biggie as we had to be up by 9am anyway, so at 8:30 I snagged the first shower. We had a slow morning getting ready, ate some fresh pineapple, then set out for our 10:30 brunch plans.
Brunch was fun, but of course I barely got to chat with everyone. Hard to converse with 7 other people in a crowded diner is a bit tough...but it went OK. I'll see everyone at least one more time when I go back to Victoria this weekend. About half of us then went to check out Tiffaney's new condo (which is freaking FABULOUS), then to my favorite Starbucks for lattes and more girl talk. Afterwards, Robi and I took Tiffaney shopping for furniture for her new pad. I found about a zillion things I wanted to buy, but alas it's hard to carry a sofa table home on the plane! After that, my Mom got to town to pick me up...finally got to meet Tiff and Robi...then we headed for Nanaimo around 8pm.

Mom and I finished up our evening with late night Chinese take-out (which was OK but disappointing since I've been waiting for this ever since the Halifax Chinese take-out disaster). Of course, after that I lost all of my steam and fell asleep about 15 minutes into the movie we were watching. Sorry Mom!

Lots more Mother-Daughter fun to report on, but you'll have to tune in next time..... :)