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.

Preparations continue...

Okay, yes I've been slacking on my blogging duties. But there's a good reason:



If you have ANY IDEA how hard it is to type without a space bar, you should feel very sympathetic right now. Because it's pretty near god-damn impossible to do. Instead of having this three-and-a-half inch button that you gently tap to get a space in-between every word...

YOU HAVE THIS LITTLE 5-MILLIMETER NUBBIN THAT YOU HAVE TO HIT SQUARE ON THE NOSE.

So yah, don't think I'm a bad blogger, just think how much it sucks that we don't have a computer repair place in Rankin. And the dumbest part of all? It came off because of that stupid little insignificant white hair you see in the photo.

Sully's of course, and I took off the space bar to clean underneath it, and now I can't get it back on again. GRRR. Trust me, it's harder than you think.

But on to the real entry...

So it took a couple weeks, but my vacation is now more or less together, and I'm just fixing up dinner arrangements and the like.

Unfortunately, despite all my nagging, bribing, and offering of totally-inappropriate sexual favours, the condiment reunion didn't come together (which reminds me, Kara, I still have to answer your question... that will be my next post, I promise!).

Which is too bad, for many reasons... but there's nothing to do but whine about it, and I think the girls feel guilty enough as is.

So after much humming and hawing...

I'm headed on my very first all-inclusive vacation to the pacific coast of Mexico in just 19 days!!!! Eeee!

Yep, I gave in. I spend WEEKS bitching about how expensive all the vacations were... and how they charge that "you suck for travelling by yourself" penalty fee... but when it came down to it, and I did the math, flying to a city and staying in a 1-star hotel (aka hostel with private room) was going to cost the same as going to an all-inclusive resort in Mexico. And that's not counting meals. Or any activities.

So instead, I've chosen to be pampered and hassle-free for a week. I can't freakin' wait.

I'll be honest, I really need this vacation. Some junk has been piling up over here in Rankin and I was VERY NEAR a burnout-and-leave earlier in December. I *think* (and hope) that the worst is over, but I feel like in the process I let a bunch of people down, and shirked on some of my commitments. I'm sorry to those it affected, but I need to put me first for a little bit. I hope to come back refreshed and with a more positive outlook.

ANYWAYS, most everything is figured out. I leave on the 16th from Rankin (a friday), meet and greet and have dinner with Madam Megan over in the snow-covered-hills, spend the night with JS v.1.0 (I'm JS v.2.0 - natch) then get on another plane bound for Edmonton in the early-AM. Then I spend from 8:30-5:30 at the Edmonton Airport (not sure what the hell I'll do then, but somehow getting my laptop space bar repaired is on the top of my list) and then I fly direct to Puerto Vallarta, arrive at almost-midnight... then hop on a bus and drive to my little resort in Rincon de Guayabitos - on the beach in a "fishing village".

I'm there until the next Sunday when I leave at 1am direct to Edmonton... arrive in the wee hours of the morning. I then plan to rent a car for the day, spend the night with my cousin and her son, do some damage at the West Edmonton Mall... and call it a day, before heading back to Rankin and work on Monday the 26th.

A week on the beach, good food and good friends ... and I should come back to Skankin' Rankin a much happier person. Horray!

And, obligatory puppy photo - in a rare "sleepy" moment.

Condiment* reunion 2008

So.

Once upon a two weekends ago, in a frozen land far far away... your semi-dedicated blogger was lonely.

All of her friends had departed for southern climates, and she was incredibly jealous.

And lonely. Did I mention she was lonely?

One weepy phone call to her mother planted the seed that she would leave her frozen land for Easter.

On a whim, she called Aeroplan. Booked tickets out to Winnipeg.

Went online. Booked tickets to Toronto.

To spend the grand Easter holidays with her two best friends, hereby known as the great condiment* reunion.

The End.

So. There you have it. I'm going TO GEORGETOWN for Easter, and I couldn't be more excited. It's going to be a bit of a whirlwind trip. And I only got the days off approved as of Friday (thank you sooooo much Mr. Station Manager.... I reallllllly appreciate it. You have no idea). I'm not joking when I say I booked these tickets on a whim. I booked them fully knowing there was a chance I wouldn't be able to use them. But I can, and I will. And I'm just ecstatic.

OH and Rent just happens to be touring Toronto when I'm there, and we are SO going. We booked our tickets last night. Caaan't wait.

I haven't seen my girls since we graduated last June. And that was just long enough to get some pictures taken, and go out to our Ottawa haunt, Fat Tuesdays. So we are way over due. And me living up here doesn't make reunions very easy, or likely.

So condiment reunion 2008.... here I come!

* Okay, so I realize the word "condiment" only has one meaning to most of the world... and you probably think of some sort of sandwich topping. Oh but it goes so much farther than that. In Ottawa the girls and I lived in a townhouse that was TECHNICALLY a condo. Room mates... nah, condo-mates. Which quickly became condiments. Now you get it.

Hotel Jackie, population: 2

So the biggest news of this week... except for the Nunies hullabaloo.... is that I now have a roomie!

It kind of came all of a sudden... a friend needed a place to live for a bit, and I had an extra bedroom, and VOILA!

It's kind of funny, I lived with Robyn and Andrea for four years... and its disgusting the system we had worked out. I really couldn't have asked for better living companions. I really noticed how much easier they made my life when I moved out, by myself, to my Quebec apartment.

And I learned several things about myself:

• I hate hate hate taking out the garbage. I'm more likely to walk past a garbage bag for WEEKS than I would take it downstairs or out to the curb. This was especially lame as in Quebec, garbage pickup was EVERY DAY at my apartment (because I lived behind a restaurant). So it wasn't like I'd miss the day then have to wait for a week. Nope, I'd just never take it down.
• I also despise sweeping. And not like specifically the pushing the dirt around with the broom. Nope, its quirkier than that. I hate gathering it into the dustpan. In fact, the other day, when Jaime/Jeff were coming over to help me paint, I did a quick clean of my apartment, but when I finished sweeping, I was like GOD I DON'T WANT TO PUT THIS IN THE DUSTPAN... so I swept it into a recess in the bathroom, and put my laundry basket over it so no one could see. It is still there.
• I have a fear of mold and really pungent food smells. So if I don't eat something that was in a tupperware container(be it in the fridge or under my bed when I was a kid)... and I forget to take the lid off and wash it... I will likely throw out the entire container. It's for my own safety, really. Certain meals have been completely ruined for me because I smelled its rotting cousin. And it takes awhile for me to recover.
  

So my poor new roomie will have a very quirky woman to deal with... though I do think she's at least willing to grin and bear it.

I hope.

Because I really need someone to take out the garbage.