here in my head

Or in this case, our new home: Our New Downtown Home!

I cannot wait to move in!!!!

One of the things I love about working downtown is that so many of my friends work downtown too, so lunches can often be spent catching up with someone. Today I met up with a friend I haven’t seen in a while (obviously, since I forgot she was due in three weeks, thinking for some reason that instead she was due in October. Had I seen her recently, I would have clearly realized my mistake…) One thing I had forgotten, however, was that June is the season of the Grade 8 trips – thousands of twelve and thirteen-year-old children from all over Ontario descend upon the Nation’s Capital City from mid-May to mid-June. Waiting for my friend at the base of the food court, watching the swarms of almost-high schoolers reminded me of my own eighth grade trip to Ottawa, and how they let us loose on the Rideau Centre back then too, and how back then I never dreamed that I would end up living in Ottawa, 20 years later…

And then it hit me. My grade 8 trip was 20 freaking years ago. And then I just felt old…

I have a little forest growing on my front lawn – a little forest of baby maple trees. Apparently we didn’t do a very good job of raking up the keys as they fell in the fall. Either that or this happens every spring, and my wonderful next door neighbour who loves to garden looked after plucking the baby trees from the ground each year. But the neighbour has moved, she left three weeks ago *sniff* and now I have a mini-forest on my hands. Part of me likes the idea of fifty trees vying for space on my lawn, and part of me realizes that there are reasons forests are not often seen along sub-urban streets. I suppose I have some arbour-cide to commit in the near future…

But not too near future – as I’m off in less than 12 hours for Iqaluit, Nunavut! For work, which makes it somewhat less exciting, but still exciting, nonetheless. I’ve never been north of 60 before, and while I’m not loving the fact that I have to dig out all my winter clothes I’d just put away a few weeks ago in order to go, I can’t wait to see the North. I’ve been working on Northern-related issues for the last five months and I am so excited to finally get to see where it is I’ve been reading and writing about.

Already, the sun is shining from about 3:30 in the morning until sometime before 10 pm. Not quite the midnight sun, but far brighter than what we’re seeing down here. And spring is supposedly a good time to see the Northern Lights. I’ve been told I have to try some Arctic Char while I’m there, and perhaps some Cariboo. And at some point I’ll take a walk to the road to nowhere. I’ve decided to not take my laptop (I KNOW!!! what will I do without it?) but I will have my camera, so I’ll update you all when I return at the end of the week…

I had dinner last night with The Gals, some of the most wonderful women I have ever met. We all met only five scant months ago when we signed up for a group therapy treatment study at the hospital late last fall and over the course of that study we became fast friends, in what the researchers said was something they’d never seen before: a group where there was no real conflict between members; where everyone was supportive; where everyone got along; where everyone was sad when the group study was over; and where everyone vowed to stay in touch. And then did.

I love our dinners together. I love how much I look forward to seeing these amazing women. I love how wonderful it is, having a group of women who all get along and who love each other so much and want nothing but the best things for each other. It’s one big gab fest when we get together and I feel energized and blessed when the night is over.

Last night I found myself confessing something I’ve not told anyone – that as we get closer to the end of May, and the Ottawa Race Weekend, I’m really sorry I didn’t sign up to walk the half-marathon again this year. However, given how crazy my schedule was this winter, what with a bus strike that dragged on for months and evenings jam packed with activities, including learning to ski, finding time to fit in half-marathon training would have been near impossible, and just might have seen me checking into the mental ward… But now that things have calmed down, and the snow has disappeared and the sun is shining and the birds are singing and I’m out walking again, I’m wishing I’d been training. I know I’m not capable of walking a half marathon in a month, but I may sign up for the 5K (easy, peasy!) as a motivator to get back to actual training rather than just strolling… And I was mentioning this to my amazing new friends, and lamenting my lack of motivation to really train alone again, when one of them said “I’ll walk a half-marathon with you.” And a few others chimed in to say the same. Which is how I ended up as the de facto leader of a rag-tag group of (amazing) women all embarking on their first half-marathon come September. I’m working out a training plan, and we’ll meet weekly for our Sunday long walks.

I’m committed now it seems… And I can’t wait!