This morning, as I was in the shower and sudsing the shampoo into my hair, I noticed a spider sitting beside my loofah. He wasn’t in motion, and almost seemed frozen as if he was afraid to move because I might notice him. But it was too late. I had, and my shower was ruined.
I could no longer be free to calmly sing and relax under the stream of hot water…I could only stare over my shoulder at the tiny eight-legged jerk that had invaded my space. And then, worst of all, he started to move. CLOSER to me. I freaked out. One option: get out alive.
I truly, truly dislike spiders, but I don’t kill them. it’s not in my nature. You may remember Ned and his release. And I let this one go as well. Except this time I didn’t gently take him outside, I just ignored him and hoped he would take himself outside – where he belongs. And clinging to this hope is the only way I will be able to hop in the shower tomorrow morning. That and the hope that Dan also saw him and squished him to death.
What? I said I don’t kill them….What other people do is their own beeswax.
One of my reasons for wanting to move from our new, bare, constructiony neighbourhood into a mature, well-established one was the trees. Or lack thereof. I despise looking around and seeing nothing but houses. It was way, way, awy worse in our last neighbourhood – townhouses as far as the eye could see – so this place was an improvement…but not by much. They should plant the trees and grass 5 years before starting new construction so that once the houses are up, it already looks homey and green and lived in.
I like green. I like the outdoors. I like feeling surrounded by nature, even when I’m in the city. So when buying our new house, I focused as much on the outside as I did on the inside. We had a list of requirements. One of them was having trees, or some kind of greenery on our property other than grass and a wimpy, barely there baby tree. I wanted big. Full. Healthy. And I got it.
Not only do I adore the new house on the inside, the outside is wonderful. A decent backyard, and a front yard shaded by a beautiful tree. It’s not exactly a swing on the branches kind of tree, but it’s taller than the house and very impressive. The backyard was bare of trees, but it was something we had planned to work on once we moved in.
Yesterday, as I was flipping through one of the free daily papers, I spotted a blurb at the top of one of the pages. It said that Ottawans are invited to register for a free tree to plant on their property. One is available per household, to be picked up in the fall. You don’t have to ask me twice. I registered as soon as I got into the building. And then I told all my co-workers to register. And now I’m telling you (for those of you who live in Ottawa, or used to and still own property here).
What a fantastic idea. I’m so onboard with any program that is in place to further green up the city. And that’s exactly what this one is attempting to do. Their goal is to plant 100,000 trees between 2007 and 2010 to be on target to join the Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign, a major worldwide tree planting campaign with the objective of planting at least one billion trees worldwide.
So. Visit www.ottawa.ca/TREE and register for your free tree. You can choose a small one (that won’t grow over 10 metres) or a large one. It’s all on a first come, first served basis. So do it now. Now! Plant a tree. Then you can hug it all you want. I plan to.
Most women love shoes. Some more than others (not me), but even the ones who don’t love shoes, love the look of a new pair of shoes and how they finish off an outfit, for example. I’m slightly out of the norm. Though I have a lot of shoes (far less than I used to since our major ‘crap purge’ of 2008), I don’t often buy shoes. And when i find a pair that I like, I wear them to death.
But every now and then I get the urge to add a new pair to my happy little shoe family. And when I got this job, I celebrated with a couple of beauties. They are a deep cranberry red patin leather with a round toe and a wedge heel. They are stunning. And when I got dressed this morning, I felt it was high time to break them out.
I walked to the bus stop, rode all the way downtown and didn’t pay much attention to them. They are slightly snug, but they are new, and that’s to be expected. Once I was off the bus and heading toward my office, I noticed they were a little pinchy in a couple of spots, but again, didn’t pay much attention. It wasn’t until I got to my office and sat down, that I looked down. My beautiful, new, red shoes had made me bleed. It wasn’t dripping or gross, but these shoes are so kick ass, they bypassed the whole blister phase altogether and went straight for blood.
Will this little bloody incident stop me from wearing them again? Absolutely not. Call me an optimist, but I just see it as part of the whole ‘breaking them in’ phase. Next time they’ll just be a little more comfortable than they are today. I hope. My ankles can’t take much more abuse.
On Wednesday morning they started work on our hardwood floor. We were originally told it would take 5 days. Barf. That’s five days of living out of one room, or having to duck under plastic to get anywhere in the house.
Thankfully, the estimate was wrong. The last coat of varnish was applied on Friday afternoon. But we (including the Humph) were forced to find temporary accomodations for two of those days. Gary and Michelle offered us a room in their house on Thursday night, while Humph stay with Erica and Drew and their two pooches. Not wanting to impose on them again, we asked Alicia is we could all crash at her place on Friday since the floor guy said we’d need to stay away until at least Saturday afternoon. She immediately obliged, no small feat for her with two kids and two dogs running around her house. It was a busy, busy place that night. But it was perfect. And Jaia had such a blast with the girls. Good times.
Big thanks go out to everyone who put us up and put up with us. So appreciated. And I cannot even begin to describe the amazing feeling of being able to sleep in our own beds and unpack the car (our temporary storage facility) on Saturday evening. It was heavenly…minus the horrible varnish smell. I doubt very much that Heaven smells like varnish.
Now, the floor. It is beautiful. Beyond beautiful. If you’ve been to our house you’d know that the hardwood we chose before we moved in was a wide slat in a deep chocolate colour. No one has ever walked into that house and not commented on how gorgeous it was. Trouble is, though beautiful, that floor was a lot of work. Combined with how much sunlight tumbles in, every pet hair, footprint, particle of dust, and paw print shows up and 10 minutes after you’ve vacummed and washed it, it looks dirty again. It became a full-time job to maintain it.
So when refinishing, we chose a slightly lighter stain and the results were amazing. It doesn’t have the same ‘knock your socks off’ feel when you first walk in, but it is equally beautiful…and worth every penny. We couldn’t be happier.
I took pictures before we moved all the furniture back into place, but forgot them (surprise, surprise). Check back soon if you are curious what it looks like now…
***Our floor guy was amazing. Reasonably priced, efficient and a perfectionist to boot. What more can you ask for. Let me know if you want his contact information.***
A lot of my friends who blog (ok, there are only 4 or 5 of them) seem to have slowed down their updates lately. It makes me sad because I so look forward to catching up on their lives everyday, especially since they are scatterd across the globe. I love finding out what is going with people I know (and those I haven’t met) who are living in Bermuda, Scotland, Victoria, etc. with the click of a mouse.
But I can’t blame them. I, myself, was VERY lax in the update department over the last couple of months. With prep for Liz’s wedding, hunting for the right daycare, illness, house purchases, getting ready for work, blogging was last on the list. It’s funny that when there is that much going on to blog about (not always the case in my life), I can’t spare the time to type it out. Nor do I want to sometimes. Especially now.
Moments not spent working are so cherished by me right as of late. I think you really take for granted staying home with a little one and not being ‘forced’ to leave everyday. The new routine includes getting a quick kiss from Jaia in the morning and then I don’t see her for 8 long hours. And just 2 weeks ago, those 8 hours were spent with her…so the adjustment is not an easy one. When I get home I want to play hard and spend the next 3.5 to 4 hours enjoying every new word, every new facial expression, and every new skill (it’s elephant sounds this week) that she’s picked up that day while in someone else’s care.
But coming back to work forces me to manage my time and in turn allows me to sneak in some blogging, more so than when taking care of a toddler all day. And I’m enjoying putting fingertip to keyboard again. Blogging allows me to jot down important and not-so important parts of my day and I find I feel sad at missed opportunities to journal. Since Jaia has come along, I find I am already looking back quite a bit on her life and how I was feeling over the last 16 months. So when weeks go by without a post, I won’t be able to look back on it the same way. Not a big deal, but just reminds me of how much I enjoy keeping up this website as a way to organize thoughts and as a way to keep our faraways as close as possible.
I hope to be on the ball much more now than I have been lately…and maybe my (hopefully) daily updates will spark some of the others to give me something to read everyday.
|
