For Kara

Reader asks... What is a condiment reunion? I am curious since I am a condimentaholic....


Oops! Sorry to disappoint, but I don't think you'll be very interested in *my* condiment reunion.
You see....

Condiments =
BUT condiments ALSO =


(DAMN I miss my hair looking like that.....)


You see, once upon a time, the three lovely women in the photo above were serendipitously assigned to the same dorm room at university. But it wasn't just any dorm room, it was the newest building on campus, with four individual bedrooms per unit, a kitchen and two bathrooms. It was called a "suite."

So the group of us were not just "room-mates" we were "suite-mates."

After first year, we moved out of the university residences into a town house. Not just any town house, a CONDO. One we would live in for the next 3 years. So no longer were we "suite-mates" or "room-mates" (I think you see where this is going...) we were "condo-mates."

Or, as is more fun, Condiments.

Now you know.

Top Two

My two favourite Christmas songs are.....

1. Blue Christmas - by the oh-so-divaesque Madam Celine Dion (many a Christmas has been passed with my sister and I serenading our parents with this song, hairbrushes in hand, fancy duds donned, crooning at the top of our lungs).

	Celine Dion - Blue Christmas
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

2. Baby it's cold outside - by anyone like Dean Martin or Frankie or anyone generally from the good ole Rat Pack days (I'll be the first one to admit this is a nice little song about date rape, but I love it all the same. Okay, it's not REALLY about date rape, it's more about Dean Martin convincing his lady friend to stay the night by the cozy fire even though she 'really should' go home. It's just a tad creepy if you read the lyrics without listening to the song).

	Dean Martin - Baby, It's Cold Outside
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

What are your fave festive tunes?


Also: on a completely unrelated note...
I forgot to put on deodorant this morning, so I've been doing sneaky pit-checks all day, and running off to the bathroom to routinely scrub them with tap water. I'm such a lady.

Lucky Me

So I'm one of those lucky people. I had three of my four grandparents for most of my life, and all four up until I was five or six years old.

And I grew up near those grandparents all my life. I was never more than a couple hours away from them until I moved to Ottawa for school.

But I don't just have grandparents. No, in fact for some reason my Dad's side of the family (though it doesn't look it in recent years) has largely been blessed with some sort of radioactive longevity gene.

My grandmother's mother, "Grammie Sullivan" (where the name Sully comes from) lived to be 99 years old. I actually have memories of her, which is pretty remarkable. Granted they were all in the hospital... but still.

And my grandmother's sisters are all in the eighties and nineties ... and many of them still kickin'.

Now a couple months back, one of "the sisters" passed away. I say "sisters" because Grammie S. actually had twin older sisters who were also nuns. Well, one of them still is. So Sister Anne has moved on to a better place (I honestly believe that, I'm not a HUGE religion-fanatic but the lady was a nun, for crying out loud. If anyone gets to go to heaven or wherever, it's her). And Sister Mary ... while she certainly felt the loss, I'm sure, she is still buzzin around the convent almost as actively as before... just without her other half (literally).

I got an email from my aunt today, with the following message:

Last Sunday when I visited with Sr. Mary told me she heard "Jackie, Jacqueline S* on CBC"....she seemed to say it with pride, yet disbelief...she always listens to CBC :)

Isn't that just the cutest thing? My 96 (?) year old grand-aunt randomly heard me on CBC. And realized it was me. And told people about it.

I think that's just amazing.


*Yet again, trunkated to preserve the iron-clad identity of the blogger

There are days...

When you wake up, and feel like the world is just so lonely...
When you talk to people and they brush you off...
When you wish you could be back in that three-bedroom apartment, studying for exams and stressing over fake deadlines
When you miss your family.
When you miss your friends.
When you miss your boy.

When the only remedy is an hour-long phone call with a friend more than 3000 kms away...
Some out-of-tune song-writing (...and the phoooone is clooooggeddd up with teeeaaaars)...
A MASSIVE plate of home-made mac-n-cheese...
A big glass of milk...
And The Terminal on DVD.

I don't know why I love this movie so much, but I do. Probably because I've spent so many hours in airport terminals over the past couple years... and get a HUGE kick out of Tom Hanks' lost in translation.

"Keep the change"

Alive and kickin'

Reader asks: Let's talk about that photo! Horizontal does not translate well into vertical. Caption: Dead man holding dog! Maybe if you checked deeper into your files you could find something that would indicate to your blogger buddies that the old man is still on the green side of mother earth.

Okay, okay. I just thought it was cute that the puppy and the father were hanging out. I still think it is cute. So I'm going to post another father-puppy photo.

Also:

Happy Birthday Dad!!

I mailed your present yesterday, expresspost, so it should arrive at the beginning of next week, if not (maybe, possibly) tomorrow.

Hope it was a good one!

Love you

Should I stay or should I go now?

Reader asks....

Not that it's any of my business but I do ask myself why you would move to Rankin if it's so important to be at every family function and see everybody regularly.


Dear reader:

I am not going to pretend I know anything about you, and your family. Because I don't. But I am compelled to assume by your question and the way you worded it that you and I weigh certain values differently.

I come from a small family. I have one sister, and there's my mom and dad. My dad's side of the family is quite large, but I'm not super-close with any of them. My mom's side of the family is very small, just her parents and a half-brother. I have just those two grandparents left, and they mean a lot to me.

I also have just a handful of really close friends. One who I've known since Jr. High school, and two who I lived with for four years. Live with two people for that long, and they become your family too.

These people, these nine people, mean the world to me.

So why would I move to Rankin Inlet if it meant so much to be a part of their lives?

Well, I'm young and I just entered the "job market" so maybe part of it was naivety that time off would be more plentiful (not that the time off we get is UNFAIR). Or maybe I thought the distance between Winnipeg and PEI was shorter. And cheaper. Or maybe I just saw my move to the north as an adventure, and a temporary one at that.

I think people generally move for one of two reasons. To GO somewhere, or to LEAVE somewhere. I had no real desire to LEAVE Quebec. I liked my little apartment, I liked my little job, I liked my little guinea pig, I liked my little couch - the first REAL piece of furniture I had ever bought. But this was an opportunity. So I took it. And in doing so, left some really important pieces of me behind: those nine people (oh, and that couch haha).

So I miss them. And I want to be with them, and I want to experience their highs (graduations, new jobs, long-overdue acceptances into dream grad programs) and lows (surgeries, injuries, heartbreaks) with them. But I can't have everything, and I've acknowledged that.

But that does leave me sad at times. And it leaves me feeling out of the loop. And it leaves me trying to fit everything into short bursts of vacation. But I have to remember that my life here is temporary - I just hope I don't miss too much and regret it.

So reader, I hope this answers your question. And maybe you still don't understand. But I think there are many people up here, who have moved far away from their family and friends to an alien environment who DO get it, and who feel the way I do. And we share an understanding that maybe you and I will never share.

Thank you for your question.

Grampie would be proud

A group of us went out to a friend's cabin this weekend. It was a fair ways out... about 1.5 hrs ATV-drive, but it's on this cute little peninsula with a beautiful view and clear waters. Seven of us left on Friday night for the cabin... and our numbers dwindled a bit as the weekend progressed (I finally left last night, but there are still three people who will be coming back today)... but it was a great way to spend a long weekend... and here I am today, with the whole day to myself.

You have to understand the craziness of this cabin. Or, rather, what MOST cabins are like outside Rankin.

I've not seen a LOT of cabins, but basically they are spruced-up shacks...off the grid... basically a more permanent tent. With counters to prepare dinner on Coleman stoves...sometimes a couch and make-shift table, and often a set of bunkbeds. Essentially, the cabins out here provide better protection from the elements, a place to cook meals and sleep AWAY from the flies.

But this cabin? Holy crap. Talk about luxe. Generator. Outhouse. Sinks. Television. Sleeps 14... real mattresses... unreal. If it had actual plumbing it would be considered a cottage down south. Hell, it's even winterized ... insulated and has a furnace.

They also have a decent sized boat with outboard motor... so we (of course) went fishing....and I caught three!!!!!!!

You have to understand how much of an accomplishment this is for me. The last time I went line fishing was when I was eight, and my grandfather took my sister and I to Ben's Lake - - this fish pond in PEI where they dump hoards of fish so little kiddies like us can have the joy of actually CATCHING a fish. I think since then I may have gone smelt fishing, but that's different (you use a spear and sit in a little shack on top of the ice).

So I'm officially an experienced fisherwoman, I came back with the MOST and the BIGGEST fish of our crew (lol, I'm not competitive at ALL). I hadn't really been all that keen about fishing in the past... but then I'd never caught anything either. And now I have three big, beautiful trout.

And it was glorious.

So between the 1.5-hour ATV ride (also a Grampie-thing... he used to have one and drive it around the "mini-farm"...aka couple acres of land they have in Flat River PE ... where the only animals to be found are the neighbour's dogs) .... and the fishing excursions, I figure my Grampie would be proud of me and my weekend adventures.

Happy Birthday Grampie!

Mother dearest...

I think this whole "becoming your mother" thing has gone too far.

For months now ... I have been on the prowl for an opal ring. I've seen a lot I don't like, and a lot with really big stones, or ugly "fire" (I lean towards the white ones with light turquoise and pink flecks)... or only existed in yellow gold (I'm a silver/white gold kinda girl).

And today, while holed up in my little traction-coccoon I finally found one.

And it's exactly like the one my mother has.
I remember seeing her ring when I was a kid, and thinking how dainty it looked on her fingers (hers always long and thin, with neatly trimmed nails... mine to this day stubby and at varying legnths... with the occasional dirt wedged beneath them.) and how pretty the little opal sat, surrounded by a starburst.

I remember just a couple years ago, the opal coming dislodged and she being sad... it was a present she bought herself. I don't know when, I don't know how, I don't know why. And it had special meaning for her.

And now I've found my opal too. And maybe someday it will sit on my finger. Transforming my pudgy child-paws into elegant woman-hands. Maybe. But after all, it is just a ring.

Update:
And those pesky links that didn't work in the comments section:
The ring
And the other one I like from the same site.

I heart mail

I got a special delivery from my family in PEI today... this is a sampling of what was inside. Roger's coffee chocolate... Reese's peanut butter Easter candy... and of course a smattering of magazines to make me oh-so-nostalgic.

Thanks mom/dad!