Rant and Roll

On the road, again

1. Fly from Halifax to Philadelphia. For 2.5 hours read Tempest Tost by Roberston Davies and laugh like a drain.

2. Wait in PHL for 45 min for your connecting flight to Seattle. Scarf down a salad with tuna but no dressing. Lament this dearth of dressing. Wait in line for 10 minutes to purchase peanut M&Ms and yogurt covered blueberries, but abandon both when you hear your flight’s boarding has started.

3. Fly from Philly to Seattle. Sleep restlessly for most of the six hour flight. Eat a massive cinnamon bun, a bag of Chex Mix, and a very limited 100 calorie Pepperidge Farm cookie snack pack. Read more Robertson Davies. Doze.

4. Feel like a creeper, because as you try to look out the window – to watch the beautiful night lights as you descend into Seatac – you realize that you are leaning just a little too close to the man sitting to your left.

5. Exit the plane, and head straight for the Park N’ Fly pick-up station. Embrace the cold as it hits your recycled air drained skin. Breathe deeply.

6. Board the Park N’ Fly shuttle. Bounce along the highway until you reach the parking lot. Decide who will drive the first leg of the excursion home.

7. Pay for 9 days worth of car storage.

8. Settle into the passenger seat. Tell your love that even though it’s 11:30 at night, and you have quite a ways to go just to get home, it still feels like a grand adventure. Also let him know that you will switch as soon as he wants a break.

9. Get on the I-5.

10. Relish in the late-night beauty of it all. Talk little. Feel close.

11. Encounter fog. A lot of it.

12. Pull off for gas. Despair about the fact that the closed gas station doesn’t have a bathroom. Pee in the bushes. Fear that someone is either going to come grab you, or, alternatively, take damning photos of you squatting in the bushes.

13. Get back on the freeway.

14. Start to feel drowsy. Will yourself to stay awake for the sake of your husband. Laugh a little when he tells you that he wants to switch because he too is getting tired.

15. Suggest milkshakes. They will, of course, quell hunger pains, and provide a much needed sugar rush.

16. Feel elated by how excited your husband is about the idea of milkshakes.

17. Take the first exit with fast food signs. Pull into the Wendy’s parking lot. Switch positions, and then drive into the drive-thru. Order a chocolate frosty for you, and a caramel frosty shake for your husband. Wonder what’s the difference between a frosty and frosty shake. Pay.

18. Get back on the freeway. Understand quickly that frostys were not meant to be eaten through a straw. Really flex those sucking muscles.

19. Get to the border. Literally pull up to the first (and only) agent because no one else is there. Answer three questions. Keep driving.

20. Try not to speed like a demon now that you are in your home country and so, so close to your home home.

21. Make a left, and then a right. Push the garage door opener and pull into your parking spot. Grab all your luggage and garbage and head to your front door. Wonder if the Christmas lights have been on all week. Insert your key into the door and greet your adorable cat who is prancing about your feet. Drop everything, pick her up and smother her in pats and kisses.

22. Remark that the house is freezing.

23. Ascend the stairs to your bedroom, jump into the nearest pair of pajamas. Floss and brush your teeth. Realize you left your mouth guard back at your mother’s house.

24. Wash your face.

25. Crawl into an absolutely freezing cold bed. Feel your husband’s arms around you. Tell him that your hair smells like an airplane. Feel his whole body laugh. Smile.

Let’s sway, while color lights up your face

Well, first things first.

A nor’easter blew in early yesterday morning, dumping snow all over Halifax. As it was also winding like a winding thing, many flights ended up being completely cancelled – including ours.

Ho hum, pigs bum.

So, as a result (and because US Airways has only been able to get us on a flight tomorrow night), Mr. M and I will be spending New Years with the fam.

Honestly, I haven’t rung in a new three hundred and sixty-five days with my mom and sister for many, many moons, so despite the fact that I am a little bummed about not being able to be with my friends tonight, I am so looking forward to spending a few more hours with these amazing, brilliant, hilarious, and completely bonkers women.

Games will be played, oh yes.

And movies watched, and good food eaten.

A glass of bubbly may be imbibed at midnight.

I don’t know about you cats, but New Years is a always such a peculiar celebration to me.

I’ve written before how I don’t actually celebrate a new year come January 1, but on September 1 (because that, for me, is when the new year actually begins – having been brainwashed by years and years of back to school shopping, and labour day long weekends) so I never really know what to do with myself when this time of year rolls around.

I also have this weird belief that as soon as Christmas is over, spring should be just around the corner, almost as if Boxing Day should herald the arrival of cherry blossoms and blue skies.

Knowing that we have three more months of winter to plod through is always just a little bit discombobulating.

I don’t really make resolutions, because throughout the year I am constantly making new goals, and revising old targets and expectations.

(But I sure do love reading all your posts about your objectives for the next twelve months.)

There are, however, many things that I am looking forward to next year.

Running the Sunshine Coast and Whistler half-marathons; being a part of three (three!) weddings next summer, and visiting New York in July; more stand-up gigs, speaking engagements, and radio shows; celebrating five years of marriage with my soul mate; and taking on new adventures in all avenues of my life.

All of these things actually give me goosebumps just thinking about them.

Talk about exciting and invigorating.

(Okay, okay! I would be remiss if it I didn’t say that I REALLY want to run a sub 1:30 half, and I REALLY want to do forty push-ups in a row.)

Can I say that those are my New Years 2013 resolutions? Are those resolutions? Either way, I’m going with it.

I will continue (to work on) keeping my anxiety in check, and my body issues at bay.

I will keep ranting, and keep rolling.

I will, also, continue to run, and write, and dream, and love – I will love my life with the fire and ferocity that life should be loved.

And I so much look forward to sharing this love.

Happy New Year to you all!

Sale, sale, sale!

Yesterday M and I braved the elements and suited up to do retail combat with all the other Haligonian boxing day shoppers.

Little known fact – here in Halifax, everything remains closed on December 26th and the shopping extravaganza doesn’t start until the 27th.

(I like to refer to it as Boxing Day Part II – Box Harder.)

When we first left the house it was bitter cold, but the air was clear of any snow flurries (or cloud debris if you will). However, about ten minutes into our walk downtown, the white stuff started in earnest and didn’t stop for the next couple of hours.

I’m pretty sure that between the time we left the house, and by the time we pried our boots off our feet upon our return, it had snowed a good ten centimeters.

Ch-ch-check it:

Mr. M bought two new pairs of shoes – running and dress – and I bought this little green number:

(Please excuse the rumpled state of this dress – I haven’t had a chance to iron out the creases. Rufus also refuses to take part.)

(As does Simon.)

We were so cold walking back that we had to make a pit stop to warm up. We chose a little Vietnamese cafe and I ate this delicious coconut curry tofu soup:

Good grief that broth packed a punch – hot, spicy, delicious.

Elsewhere in the cosmic kitchen, we’ve been playing games like the game nutters that we are, eating delicious and decadent food, running like Forrest Gump, listening to great music, dancing about the kitchen, and watching movies late into the night (and sometimes into the early morning. I officially don’t need to watch another Bond flick for the rest of my days here on this here planet.)

We even suited up and worked a shift at my sister’s butcher shop and storehouse. (Stay tuned for a much longer post on this incredibly business venture.)

Here I am in full shop regalia:

This was pretty much one of the most fun things EVER – talk about fam jam teamwork (although I was pretty adement working the cash, as handling large quantities of meat isn’t exactly my bag.) We even had a family photo taken in the store last night.

I cannot wait to see the final results.

What’s been happening in your necks of the woods? Did you purchase anything on boxing day?

I’m so sorry that I have been lax in keeping up with all your brilliant blogs. I’ll be back to normal soon – at present I’m just soaking up all the family time I can get.

The usual, please

This Christmas I went running.

It’s tradition.

I don’t know when exactly this custom of mine started, but for the past five or so odd years I have found myself pounding the pavement – sometime betwixt the hours of nine and five – come the twenty-fifth of December.

And I love it.

Many of you who read this blog know that I am a bit of a nut when it comes to running.

For those of who don’t, running is my meditation, my calm. It allows me to bring focus and clarity to the busiest (and most bonkers) of days; it allows me to both greet the morning sun, and to bask in the late afternoon dusk.

When I run, I am life.

I am love.

And on Christmas – a day that marks so much love and life, that is chock-a-block full of bustle, and laughter, of wrapping, and lace – I like to sneak away for a half hour or so.

I lace up my runners, and slip on a toque, and run, run, run, until my lungs fill with fire, and my eyes cry wind-swept tears, and my cheeks burn from the sun, and the fine sea salt spray – and I can feel my blood rushing from the top of my head, to the tips of my toes.

And with each stride, with each step, I feel this love and life.

So yesterday I ran.

From my mother’s house I flew – across park, road, and path, buoyed (or blasted) by strong gusts of wind, I raced up to the top of the Halifax Citadel.

My breath strong, yet steady, and my legs felt weightless (although that could have been the cold.)

And there, at the top, overlooking all of the city –

I felt on top of the world.

And all through the house

Happy Christmas eve beauty cats!

After a good twenty-eight hours of traveling, M and I finally made it to Halifax safe and sound.

We had a long wait at SeaTac, so we enjoyed some wine and dessert at one of the airport’s lounges.

2012-12-22 18.25.58 — Wines from Spain, Argentina and Chile. We liked the Chilean the best.

It’s a hard life, but you know, we’re happy to take one for the team.

(It’s pretty nuts knowing that it’s cheaper for us to drive to a DIFFERENT COUNTRY and then fly back to Canada, than to just purchase tickets out of YVR, BUT! That is a post for another day – I am too relaxed, and the house smells too good, and I am wearing too sparkly of a skirt, and I have a too sleepy cat in my lap to care all that much.)

I am warm, and happy, and snuggly, and fab.

The city here is cold, but beautiful, and our house twinkles in the glow of tea lights and fire light, and the snow flurries wink as they dance past the windowpanes.

ALSO. We have big, BIG news!

My sister and her long-time partner Mel just got engaged!

This fills me with so much happiness it’s practically impossible to communicate just how truly chuffed I really am. They are a brilliant couple and I cannot wait to see them declare their love for one another in front of family and friends next summer in New York.

We’ve only been here but a day and things are rolling like rolling things.

Here are some snaps for the past twenty-four hours: