merely talk

Hello, hello

I've decided to return to this lovely lovely blog. But I'm not sure if I'm going to tell anyone about it. Perhaps I will just see what happens.

So in the latest news I have moved from E-town to the lovely 'rents home on Pender Island. It's a hard pill to swallow being 25, engaged, and by all accounts somewhat of a functioning adult and then having/needing to move back home. It makes one feel a bit of a failure. But fortunately this is just a temporary move. I will hopefully soon be a resident of beatiful Victoria British Columbia. All I need at this point is a job and an apartment. And I'm working very hard to have both sooner rather than later. Still I must say I'm not doing very well being both unemployed and homeless.

The ever charming fiance is currently residing in Seattle. We are starting the process of getting him into Canada, sometime before our wedding next year. I have a feeling the whole dealings with the Canadian government and it's kilometers of red tape will provide me with lots of fodder for blogging. Even though I have had a few months to adjust to that fact that I need to prove to various government officials that my relationship is real and valid, I still find it quite offensive. I love him. He loves me. I hate having to justify that to some agency, who holds my future in their hands. And that on a whim they could just say no to letting Matthew into the country. It's terrifying and heartbreaking all at once. So I really really really hope that when they are feeling all whimiscal, they reach for the Yes stamp, instead of the No.

I am also the proud owner of the cutest damn puppy in the world. Finnegan is currently wearing a stupid cone since he was neutered mere days ago, so he's quite unimpressed with that. But he's still quite cute. He's a mini schnauzer, and almost 7 months old. He is very willfull and smart, loves to play fetch and to destroy shoes. I'm one of his biggest fans and I'm sure I will be turning into a puppy blogger soon, so watch out.

And finally I made really good cookies this morning. And I kind of, sort of invented them. So I feel I should include the recipe of awesome. I've decided to call them kitchen sink cookies, since I used everything my mother had in the cupboards in them. One might say they have everything but the kitchen sink. har har har.

Kitchen Sink Cookies

1 cup butter/marg
3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup chocolate chips

2 cups oatmeal

1 cup rice krispies

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease your cookie sheets.

2. Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beat thouroughly and then add the vanilla and mix well.

3. In a seperate bowl, combine the flour and the baking soda and then add to the wet mixture. Mix well.

4. In a seperate bowl combine the oatmeal, rice krispies, choc chips, raisins, and seeds (feel free to add anything else, like dried cranberries, nuts, or other cereals). Add to the cookie mixture and combine well.

5. Make small one inch balls and place them an inch apart on the baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes. I made 64 cookies with this recipe, even though I'm sure they will all be gone by tomorrow.

Labels: Cooking, Fun, Travel

Labels: Travel

Labels: Books, Travel

So I am now unemployed and no longer a student. It feels pretty awesome. The last few days have been a blur of drinking and baking and watching TV and Christmas decorating and shopping and wrapping and visiting.

Jackie and I signed a lease on Monday so as of January I won't be homeless, which is nice. Our new place is pretty awesome, with a great view of the river valley and lots of storage space. The location is pretty sweet too, I'm going to be two blocks away from my current roommates, so stalking them won't be too difficult.

Our big Christmas she-bang is tonight. There is still lots of prep work required, but hopefully we'll get it all done, and I'll be able to get to visit with a few last friends before I take off tomorrow.

Weeeee! I'm so excited to be going home. I have a caravan of dear friends meeting me at the airport, which is going to be so awesome. And I can't wait to go home. It's been a year since I've made it out to BC and that's just too damn long. I miss my family.

So Merry Christmas folks, who knows if we'll have power out at the Cabin at Christmas, so I may not be updating this while I'm away.

So Happy New Year too.

Labels: Drinking, Travel

Okay. Time to put something less depressing up here.

I went to go see this fantastic play last night at the Roxy. It was called The Summer of my Amazing Luck and it was based on the book by Miriam Towes. And it was awesome. I loved the book and I was mildly concerned that it wouldn't translate very well, but the adaptation was great and it included all the most important aspects of the book.

I'm really happy I managed to see it.

I have one final left of my university career. I can't bring myself to study for it though. I also have my last three shifts at my store this weekend. I feel conflicted about that. I'm going to miss it there I think. Fortunatly I see the co-workers outside of work regularily enough so it won't be as hard to leave.

After that last final I have a few days to bake and relax and party it up, and then I head home for a much needed vacation. I haven't been home in a year now, and it feels so strange. I really miss being at the cottage and I'm happy to be heading back. And I get to see Janice and Amanda and hopefully many other fantastic people.

Wee!

Labels: Cooking, School, Travel

Sorry for the lateness of this guys. The last week has been kind of intense and busy, with school and work and social interaction I haven't had a spare half hour to write this all out. But I want to get it out before I forget it all. Even now my time in Montreal seems like a dream, an awesome dream, but a dream all the same. I was so impressed by the city and how stress free and happy I felt there, that already I don't believe that my time there was real. Isn't that strange? I felt very at home in the city, despite the language barrier and the fact that I know very few people there. The atmosphere and architecture and the laid back nature of everyone around made such an impression on me, that I've already decided that at some point in my life I need to live there.

I ended up driving to Montreal with my cousin Anna's best friend. I met her once before last summer, but we had a lot in common so spending six hours in a car with a virtual stranger was not a problem. We actually both had backgrounds in feminist theory, and were both single girls, so we could cover both shallow and deeper conversation topics. We made it to Montreal in about six hours, even though it should have been less. The route we ended up taking into the city involved a lot of construction and stupid drivers so it added a good hour to the trip. Parking was also a little tricky to find, but we managed. We ended up parking on Doctor Penfield road, which I spent the rest of the weekend calling Dr. Burnt Toast road, mostly due to the Part of our Heritage commercial that featured the good doctor.

We met up with my cousin and her boyfriend and his roommate and all went our for Lebanese fast food (oh so tasty) and cheap beer (somewhat less tasty....). Sadly before we went out the power at the apartment I was spending the weekend at went out. It being a long weekend, the boys were going to be out of luck until the Tuesday. We spent the rest of our time there with one outlet working. It made it a bit tricky for us girls to primp, but with a little team work we managed just fine.

That first night in Montreal we hit a few bars, the last one we ended up at, Rouge, was somewhat sleazy. Yet due to the sleaziness I didn't have to pay for any of my drinks, so it was alright in my books. And I really enjoyed how last call wasn't until 3am, it made for a longer night out. Especially 'cause most nights we didn't end up leaving the apartment until midnight.

I also participated in the traditional drunken eating of Poutine after leaving the bar. I did only have a few bites, cause I wasn't drunk enough to think it would actually taste good or anything, but I still participated in the whole event. It was a good time. I ended up talking about Tess of the D'urbervilles with a man from Oxford for quite a long time, then catching a cab ride home with one of his friends. She was awesome too, she gave me and my friend advice on bars to check out the next night, and wouldn't take our money for our portion of the trip.

The next day, Saturday, us girls headed out to Mount Royale and this awesome little cafe. We drank coffee, ate Brie and people watched. It was a lovely time. The coffee was so good and so cheap, the stuff at Second Cup really isn't cutting it for me anymore. Which is sad. Edmonton definitely needs more little independent coffee shops. Preferably with cute Francophone waiters.

We went out that night to a few more bars and I had my one and only bad Montreal experience. Within ten minutes at the first bar of the evening I had my wallet stolen out of my purse. So there went my money, my id, my metro pass....everything. It meant I wasn't going to be able to go the Oshega festival the next day, and I was going to have a bitch of a time getting on the plane to go home. Fortunately I had taken most of the cash out of my wallet before we left for the bar, so I was going to have enough to eat for the rest of the trip, but it was still a very upsetting experience.

I allowed myself ten full minutes of freaking out after I discovered it was gone and then decided to make the best of the situation. I ended up having a fantastic night that night. I met some wonderful, generous people, had one of the best conversations of my life and discovered a new beer (Murphy's). It was pretty awesome, and a time I think I'm going to treasure for a long time.

On Sunday I went and filed a police report and then just wondered around Montreal by myself. I read in a park for awhile and then went to a cafe and treated myself to some Tiramisu. I had a great time being by myself. I felt much more confident in Montreal than I normally do in Edmonton. I'm not exactly sure why though. Sitting in the park, I felt at home and free. In a way there was a freedom in not having my wallet. I could have been anyone, with no id, and very little money. And I was also really proud at how I handled myself with the whole incident.

The last day in Montreal was pretty relaxed. I went to a friends for tasty breakfast and then just snoozed on the couch until it was time to drive back to Toronto. The drive back was a lot of fun, filled with girl talk, singing along to Arcade Fire and fist pumping. We got back into Toronto around 10:30 that night.

I had to get up hella early for my flight the next day, which kind of sucked. The airport people were particularity lovely though. One can actually get on domestic flights without picture id if you have a police report. My check in agent was especially sympathetic to my plight. She called me dear, and made sure I'd have no problems getting on my plane. I didn't even have to cry like I originally thought I would have to.

My new roomie was kind enough to come and get me from the airport and lend me money for groceries, thanks again new roomie! I did have the most ANNOYING seat mate on the plane ride though. So the trip home wasn't all that great. I was also pretty exhausted, I didn't do much sleeping on my mini vacation. It was worth it though.

And that's my eastern adventure. If you made it to the end of this long narrative I give you kudos!

Labels: Drinking, Travel

So Jenn dropped me off at the airport on Wednesday morning. It was pretty tricky getting up at seven, but somehow I managed it. I found the check in process surprisingly painless, which is pretty amazing considering I was dealing with Air Canada. The new security guidelines are pretty annoying though. They insisted on denying my right to lip baum. I also got to be one of the random searches nat security. So even though I didn't set off the metal detector, the lady still waved the little wand all over me, stuck her hands in my pockets and made me undo my belt (sexual harassment anyone?).

My flight was bumpy but we had some fancy entertainment systems, which made me happy. Pretty much I had my own screen, and I could watch whatever TV show or movie I so desired to. I settled on Thank You for Smoking (which was okay but I wouldn't pay to see), an episode of Arrested Development (always a good choice) and and episode of Trading Spaces (we landed before I could see the end of that one, so I never saw the completed rooms, the process made me think they were going to be pretty bad though). The entertainment system almost made up for the fact that Air Canada no longer provides complimentary meals. Now you actually have to give them cold hard cash for their crappy food. Something I refused to do, and therefore I was very hungry when I got to Toronto.

Lena met me at the gate and we hopped on a bus and then a train to get to her place. We did have to stop at a Tim Hortons before we made it to the apartment though. I was hungry and she had just spent two weeks in the US, Tim Hortons was very much necessary. We brought home some Tim Bits to Paul and then went on a mini exploratory trip around her neighbourhood.

I had a lovely visit with her and Paul. And of course I made it to H and M, though I was less than impressed with the clothes. I did buy a cute hat and scarf set and some hair clips though. And I found out one is going to be opening in Edmonton soon, so that was all good.

On Thursday night we headed to the Bata Shoe Museum, which was pretty fun. There are some wacky shoes out there in the world. It's pretty fun to see when the comfort went out the window and fashion became the most important part of the design. We also went to this restaurant/bar called Panorama, which was on the 51st floor of some building. It gave you an awesome view of downtown Toronto, so even though the drinks were in the $10-15 range I still had fun.

On Friday morning I set out for Montreal.

Labels: Travel

So I've been back in Edmonton for a few hours and that's been pretty awesome, but not as awesome as my little mini vacation. I feel I need a vacation to recover from my vacation. I averaged about 3 hours of sleep a night while in Montreal, drank way too much and saw more of the night than the day. And I have a few nutter stories, but I'm not sure how amusing they would be to people who weren't there.

Anyway I'm a little too tired from all the traveling and hard partying to do any justice at all to my visit out east, so you are all going to have to wait for my impressions of Montreal and Toronto.

Au revoir!

Labels: Travel

Hey guys,

I'm off for the weekend, heading a bit out of town for some cabin-y good times.

You may not notice much of a difference, cause it's not like I update this thing that much, but if you email me and I don't get back to you, this is why.

Later!

Labels: Travel