Friday, January 30

I'm old and sick

I turned one year older and then got super sick.

My birthday this year was even more low key than last year's celebration. I woke up really early but was nice and left my sleeping beauty in bed for hours. S&L stopped by after seeing a house in our neighbourhood then my parents stopped by. My parents hadn't been over since we got the piano. I thought it had been so long that they forgot who I was because they came with this fancy wine holder thingy. I don't drink wine. Turns out, they stuffed a whole bunch of work socks into the wine holder. They know me afterall.

I had a relaxing day when J went out on the town. Then we had A&S and S&L over for dinner and cake. Dinner was free pizza - the best kind - and the cake was a chocolate oatmeal concoction that Sylvia made. It was REALLY chocolatey.

Sunday I got the sleep in I was looking for but I woke up with a nasty cold. That night we had dinner with J's family. We didn't stay late so I could get back to the couch. No kidding, this is possibly the worst cold I've ever had.

I stayed home from work Monday and Tuesday and again Thursday. I went in Wednesday and today to get some important things done. Turns out the people before me didn't get their pieces done on time so I couldn't get mine done. I had a really bad week at work last week so it was nice to spend this week mostly on the couch. Sandy liked having me home too.

Today I sent J on his way. He and 7 friends are going to Tremblant for the weekend. He has plans to snowboard and I have plans to avoid shoveling the driveway. I may see my family and see my friends, or I may lie on the couch all weekend. We will see.

Saturday, January 24

Just wondering

I'm sitting here wondering if my mother would be proud. Earlier this week I told her that she and my dad couldn't come over today before 11 because I wanted to sleep in. Then I'm up before 6am. I must be getting old.

Thursday, January 22

So True

"When you start to really know someone, all his physical characteristics start to disappear. You begin to dwell in his energy, recognize the scent of his skin. You see only the essence of the person, not the shell. That's why you can't fall in love with beauty. You can lust after it, be infatuated by it, want to own it. You can love it with your eyes and your body but not your heart. And that's why, when you really connect with a person's inner self, any physical imperfections disappear, become irrelevant."

- Ridley Jones, a character in Lisa Unger's novel, Beautiful Lies

Wednesday, January 21

Mexico

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Mexico was a great trip to start off the new year. It didn't start off so great though: we had some issues at the airport even before we took to the air. For some reason our pilots were in Montreal and had to cab to Ottawa. Where did the cabbie take them? The Carp airport of course. The finally arrived, we finally got on the plane, they finally de-iced the plane and then they figured out that there was a problem with a tire. Sure guys, you go ahead and fix that, because you couldn't have checked that earlier. Either way, we were finally on our way! Excited but tired and grumpy, we were going to Mexico.

The flight was fine until the captain came on the intercom thingy and said something about a fire. In the cockpit. Honestly. We landed safely in Cancun and were escorted by emergency vehicles to a deserted part of the airport and let off on the tarmac. Welcome to Mexico, these are the finest firefighters in the land!

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Our first day at the resort, which was huge by the way, is a little fuzzy in my sleep-deprived memory. We went to the beach, we looked around, we ate food and we went to bed early. The whole week was a lot of the same - lying around on the beach or at the pool, eating way too much at the buffets - but here are some highlights.

We went to Akumal, a nearby town, to see sea turtles. We were told we could snorkle right off the beach and see turtles. We were not disappointed! J and I found this ginormous turtle munching away about 10 feet below us. I freaked out a little when he came up for air in our direction. Incredible!

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We also took a day trip to see the ruins in Coba, a small town in from the coast but not too far from our resort. We were able to climb the ruins, which was made scarier by the fact that it was pouring rain. The stone steps, all 120 of them, were slick. From the top, I could see the exact spot I would land if I tripped on the way down.

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We also had a little bit of canoeing, a jungle walk, a short zipline, a meal with the Mayans, a Mayan ceremoney, and got to swim in a cenote. The cenote is basically a sinkhole that you have to rappel down into. The water was almost completely clear and wasn't cold and you're sitting on an innertube, but what creeped me out where all the catfish in the cenote with us. Just thinking of them gives me goosebumps. But I survived and can now say I've swam in a cenote. The last event of the day was tequila shots at the head office of the tour company. Mmm.

We had three a la carte dinners during the week. We chose Italian, Mexican and Japanese food. My favourite by far was the Japanese place. We were lucky enough to get a table where the chef cooks right in front of you. He was crazy and the food was really good.

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We've been back almost a week now. I'm back at work though J's super sick and is still at home. Work has been awful and I'm daydreaming about being on the beach again. Too bad we can't take trips once a month. That wouldn't be so bad.

Whole Mexico Set on Flickr

Tuesday, January 6

2008 Wrap Up

I've been thinking about this post for a long time. I have so much to tell you. 2008 was a busy year.

In January, I had the chance to act as section head at work for my group. It was harder than I thought it would be and I came out with an eye twitch that lasted until April. I also turned one year older. Something I plan on doing again real soon.

In February I went skiing for the first time in a lot of years. I didn't break any bones, even with a massive wipe-out, and experienced a hot tub in the middle of winter. Snowpants, bikini top and a touque - sexy!

March was a month of excitement. J, A and I almost died when we flew down an icy road backwards in A's parent's van trying to get up to the abandoned mine in Quebec. J also, very discreetly, whispered to me that he got the pretty hygienist when he went to have his wisdom teeth pulled. In his drug-induced state, the whole dentist's office heard his proclamation. Poor high J.

April was the month for birthdays. Who wasn't born in April? It was also when the snow started melting and therefore the pictures we took got a little less white and grey.. more brown and dogshit. That's a colour, right?

The biggest event in May was our trip to Europe for C&S's wedding. It was our first time in Europe and our first time traveling with friends. Pretty exciting.

June was my baseball team's only tournament. We had a good time in Grafton which is middle-of-nowhere, Ontario. I loved the city so much, I traveled back a week or two later for JW's wedding. My brother, his girlfriend and his friends were very good at keeping both my hands full of alcohol. Trying to swipe my room key at some wee hour in the morning to the room I was sharing with my parents while unable to even keep my eyes open was an experience.

July was the month of summer: HOPE beach volleyball tournament at Mooney's bay, cottage weekend with my family and one with friends, and our 4th anniversary. It was also the month that our little cats turned 4. They're getting so old!

When I said July was the month of summer, I really meant that August was the month of summer. August was full of cottage parties and drinking on patios and birthdays and BC's wedding.

September was a big birthday month and really the kick off to A&S's wedding with showers and a full-on bachelorette party. I'm surprised we survived that day - make up, drinks, dinner, more drinks, bar number 1, an entire men's soccer team, more drinks, bar number 2, more drinks, some walking in the rain, some crying in the parking lot and eventually some passing out. It was also a huge month for me - I ran a half marathon after training all summer. Incredible.

October was an emotional month. It was full of photo outings with the leaves changing colours, A&S got married, we saw Cirque du Soleil, we lost Rolo and J went to Toronto for a week. I'm not sure I'm fully recovered from October yet.

Most of November I was out of it. We did our usual hikes and took lots of pictures. We had American Thanksgiving and lots of family dinners and bought an electric piano.

December was incredibly busy. There was work and work lunches and family dinners and dinners with friends and birthdays and Christmas and everything that comes with that - shopping, wrapping, worrying about not sending out cards, cookie exchanges, feeling sick after eating too many cookies, having friends go home and come home. The month ended without a bang: J and I spent New Year's together. It was nice but not typical. No friends, no noise makers, no jello shots and no kissing at midnight. We watched some movies and I lost the battle with myself and fell asleep before midnight. My conclusion: I'm getting old.

Now that 2009 is here, I'm hopeful. I'm looking forward to another year that is just waiting to be filled with the things I love doing. I'm not one to make resolutions, so I didn't, but I did reflect on the last year and think about things I maybe want to do more of and things that I could do less of. 2009 is going to be a big year and we're kicking it off with a trip to Mexico! Who knows where else we'll go or what else we'll do. Anything is possible.

Check out my Project 365 to see a picture for every day of 2008.


Oh the places you'll go...
Dr. Seuss