Catching Up With Old Friends

Today was a great day. The sun came out and stayed out for the entire day! Plus it was around 22 degrees which gave the majority of us sun enjoyers a bit of a sunburn, but we're not complaining. I woke up to the feeling that it was beautiful outside. You know when you can just sense that it's amazingly sunny outside even though the curtains block all indication of outside? So I hopped out of bed, changed my clothes and jumped on my bike to go for a nice long bike ride into the country. Even at 8:30am I was way overdressed since it was so incredibly humid but I didn't care. I was on my bike and enjoying the sunshine and warmth. Everything was so beautiful as well. The grass was so green and the dirt was so red and the dandelions were so yellow and the sky was so blue! Everything looked amazing. Plus I saw three fox babies (kits) with their parents and they were so cute! I really wish I had my camera with me. I went about 30kms this morning which is fairy good considering I haven't been on the bike since September. I know my hamstrings are going to hate me in the morning but I've missed my bike and I think it missed me.

Tip of the Day: The sign of a good bike-ride is when you get home to find tiny flies trapped against your sweaty skin. Ok. That was gross.

After the ride and a good cold shower, I went to get my hair done. I'm officially blond again! The blond is back in town! It was great to see my light hair return to me once again. I remember the last time (and first time) I ever went this light and it was such a huge shock every time I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, but this time around it's really no big deal and it feels as though I never went through the whole red-head stage. It's like seeing an old friend and immediately engaging in comfortable conversation from the get-go.

After returning to my blond-self I speed walked to Victoria Park to meet up with Sam who was already there lounging in the sunshine (yes, she got a sunburn as well). We ran into some girls we know and chatted with them for a while, then went for a nice walk, got some coffees and just enjoyed the exciting weather.

Tonight I am meeting up with Jess to go to a fashion show at the Globe where a friend of hers is modeling, so we're pretty stoked about that. Not to mention the $3 drinks will come in handy considering the amount I just spent to get my hair done! I really need to give up my vanity I have for my hair. But it's just so fun! Anyway, my skin may be bright pink and hugely annoying but the night is young and I am excited that we got a wonderful reminder that summer is on it's way!

As strange as this may sound, I feel like I got the catch up with a number of old friends today. The first one being the sun. The second was my bike and the love I have of taking it for a ride. The third is my blond hair and the fourth...hmmmm. I look forward to having a beer tonight. It's been a while (like a good solid week at least!)

Wet Feet. Happy Feet.

It's been raining here lately. A lot. And it can be hard to take because it's the middle of May and all we want to do is go outside and hit the trails with our bikes and boardwalks with our buddies and just celebrate the fact that winter is over. But it just keeps raining. Rain is wonderful to a certain extent. I absolutely love waking up in the morning to the sound of the rain because it gives me an excuse to stay in bed a little while longer. No rush to get out of bed quite yet. Or a cool rain shower in the middle of a hot afternoon is superb because it freshens the air and makes everything smell wonderful. But week after week of dreary rain is good for only one thing - Complaining. People love to complain about the weather. Yes, I am one of them. Especially when I notice that the bottom of my shoes have detached from the main body of the shoe making my feet especially wet the past couple of days. I just thought I was sloshing through too many puddles.

The reason I bring the dull subject of the weather up in this post, is because two days ago I had one of those moments that reminds me that I've become accustomed to being a boring adult and the moment made me officially stop complaining about the rain. I was driving down Queen Street (in the rain) and a kid and his mom were walking along the sidewalk. The kid was dancing and twirling and laughing in the heavy rain with no hat or any kind of weather protective gear on. Meanwhile, about 10 feet behind him was his mom who looked like she was having the day from hell and was completely drenched (even though she had an umbrella).

The scene made me laugh. There have been numerous occasions where I have been trapped in a torrential downpour with no hope of shelter and all I could do was take the moment to laugh and play. Jumping into puddles is more than acceptable when your pants and shoes are weighing you down with the weight of the water. Makeup running down your face is of zero concern because the rain will wash it away in a few minutes anyway. Flat hair? Who cares??!!? Not me! I've decided to stop speaking negatively about the rain for now because I'm sick of listening about it so I'm not going to join the ranks of complainers. It can't rain forever. The sun will come back. I promise.



I have never taken a picture of my feet before but today I felt it was necessary to express the happiness my feet feel right now. Today I got my first ever pedicure and it was divine. I have never really taken much notice or care to my feet which is surprising because my feet are important to me and I enjoy having them so I don't know why I don't take better care of them. I used to put foot cream on them every night before I went to sleep but that was the extent of my overall foot care and really, that didn't last very long. But I started going to Nakai which is the new spa in town and after my first visit they gave me a complementary pedicure to get me to come back...so of course I did! Who's going to turn down a free pedicure? Like I said. It was divine. If you've never done it, do it. If you already do it, why didn't you convince me to do it sooner? Kaylynne tried to get me to come with her to get one last week and it just didn't happen for some reason. Clashing schedules perhaps? I wish I had gone.

Tip of the Day: Go get a pedicure! Your feet deserve it.

Then Reality Sets In

So I have spent the past 9 days in a frenzy of graduation events and being my parents' tour guide. I have be enjoying getting up (reasonably) early and starting the day by driving/walking around with them and showing them the sights. Mom really loved seeing all of the amazing old churches and graveyards that PEI has, so we got in the habit of stopping and looking at them when we came across one on our drives out in the country. I've also been enjoying eating out far more regularly than usual, but there is a guilt building up around not cooking for so long and for spending money on meals when they could easily be made at home. Well, I guess I did make dinner for the folks on a few occasions, so I suppose that helps a bit.



Our trip to Halifax was not what we had planned since Mother Nature decided to rain, and rain, and rain a whole lot more. I can barely remember the last time I saw the sun and the forecast isn't promising for the next week or so. The drive there we stopped to take some pictures of the famous Confederation Bridge and a couple lighthouses. Once we got to Halifax, we did a little sightseeing but mostly just ended up shopping since the wind and rain kept turning the umbrellas inside-out. Dad got the chance to meet Alexander Keith, which he seemed pretty happy about about. I got some lovely new clothes which I am excited to someday wear once the weather turns a bit warmer. Oh, and we also got slightly "lost" on the way home since my dad took a wrong exit without my knowledge and we ended up adding an extra 1.5+ hours onto the drive. But if you ask him about it he'll just blame the whole ordeal on me, so don't bother.



It was great to have mom and dad spend some time here on the island. They got a bit of a sense of the life I've been living the past few years and the chance to see the places I go and the people I've met along the way. I even got them to come to Thursday night trivia at Hunters! Actually, there was very little coaxing involved. Once they heard the size of the draft beers that they sell there they seemed more than happy to experience trivia night. Kidding, kidding. But it was a lot of fun. Even Jess and Sam came along as well which I was grateful for since we would have sucked royally without them. We still didn't win, but the night was fun nonetheless.

Their flight departed at 6am this morning so the goodbyes had to be done last night. As always, it was hard to say goodbye. Some days it is excruciatingly difficult to live so far away from all of my family. The thing with that though is that now I have to face reality. My excuses for not searching really hard for jobs was that I wanted to wait until after I graduated and after the parents returned back to BC. Well, that time is now which means I have to face the facts that I have a large student loan to pay off and a degree to live up to.

*Gulp*

Plenty to Celebrate!

My major concern at the moment is that I have way too much to talk about and that this blog post will end up taking all of you about an hour to read, which I doubt is how you want to spend your day. I will try to make it snappy and sweet.

So it all began Wednesday night when my parents arrived in PEI. They were delayed in Montreal for a while so their flight was 2 hours late. And believe me, Charlottetown airport can only stimulate a person for so long so me waiting alone for 2 hours seeing if their plane would show up was a bit painful. But they arrived in one piece around 1:30am and it was well past 2:30am by the time I got them to the hotel and headed home. This is their hotel, The Great George.

Thursday was a chill kind of day. We walked around town and I took them for a drive out into the country so they could get the lay of the land. Unfortunately the weather had its own idea and it got so rainy and foggy that we couldn't even see the coast-line as we drove along side it. We're hoping to go for a nice drive tomorrow and see some beaches if the weather permits it. We went to Cedar's Eatery for supper which is one of my favourite places to eat in Charlottetown. A small Lebanese restaurant that cooks with enough garlic to choke an elephant, and yet I can't get enough. It's so delicious. Even my dad was a fan and he tends to turn his nose up to a lot of ethnic foods. (He even ate Korean food today! He's turning into a whole new person right before my eyes!) After dinner the parents retired back to the hotel while I headed to the bar to meet some of the girls to have a drink. Friends started to trickle back onto the island for graduation so we felt it was necessary to celebrate their arrival with some beers.

Friday was a bit more busy. I had to go to the rehearsal convocation for my graduation in the morning, pick up my gown, , run some errands, make some lunch/dinner for my parents, then later in the afternoon we Nutrition students all gathered together to get our photo taken which goes on the wall of the Nutrition building for all generations to admire. Following that was a little ceremony for our class in which we each got to invite a few close relatives and the ceremony included a couple speeches from some profs, the presentation of our rings and a meet & greet of every one's families and our professors. It was really nice that the department put that on for us because it gave us a chance to mingle and meet every one's mom and dad and just enjoy each other's company one last time as a group. Plus there was excellent food! And once again, afterwards we went out for beers.





Saturday was graduation. I am officially a graduate from the University of Prince Edward Island (I have the degree to prove it!). The day was incredibly busy and full of nerves, excitement, happiness and lots of picture taking. The day went by so quickly it's hard to even remember the little details. I do remember that my gown kept riding up the front of me and constantly choked me while I tried to retain my dignity as I walked around all day. I also remember sore feet. Anyway, it was lovely and the weather held out by not raining, which was a huge relief for everyone. After the ceremony, myself, mom and dad, and Chris and his parents all went out to the Maple Grille for dinner. I've wanted to go there since I heard about it during first year, but the menu is not the most suitable for a student's pocketbook, so I stayed clear it for many years. But yesterday was a celebration and I am so glad that I chose there to eat because it was delicious! I would have licked my plate as well as everyone else's plates as well if it wasn't so looked down upon. I highly recommend the Maple Grille if you want some good eats. And guess what? Afterwards I met up with friends to have....you guessed it! Beer!

Today, Sunday, is Mother's Day (Happy Mother's Day!). I had to work in the morning so I spent the first 8 hours of my day feeding people and their mom's lots of eggs benedict and lobster quiche. It was a good and busy morning so the time went by quickly. Mom and dad went out on their own and did some touristy thing while I was at work. I was told that the famous Sir John. A MacDonald and my dad had a good conversation. I spent the rest of the afternoon with my folks, then we headed out to Chris's parents house for dinner where we met up with the entire family for an excellent meal (and company of course). There was plenty of food, wine, laughter and even a song or two played by Chris. It was the perfect way to end a fantastic weekend.



Now, I head to bed. Oh man. Bed. This is going to be good. Zzzzzzzzz

Sizzling with Excitement

My parents are coming tomorrow! I'm super excited, just in case you people can't tell. I managed to switch one of my shifts at work so that I can spend the entire first day with them. I'm trying to decide where to take them for dinner on their first night on PEI. A part of me is leaning towards Rufus and Rory's Finer Diner so that they can see where I work, but this is also a chance to show them what the island has to offer for restaurants. I guess I have 2 days still to figure it out. I keep forgetting the reason that they're traveling the 5,500 kms is to see me graduate. Graduation seems to be the last thing on my mind right now.

I made Pad Thai last week and it was delicious. The one thing that I learned though is that it is very difficult to find tamarind in this town (we borrowed it from Kelly) and there is just one little Chinese food store that carries it. Unfortunately the day we went to get some, it was closed. But after the success of the meal I decided that I needed to always have tamarind on-hand so I went back to the store to get some. Now I am officially obsessed with this little store and I keep finding silly reasons to go back. Today it was for rice wine vinegar and water chestnuts. Sure I could easily find these items in any regular grocery store, but that's boring!

This place takes me back to all of the trips to Victoria (BC) I used to go on and we would end up in these amazing (and large) Chinese supermarkets and spend a stupid amount of time just walking around and looking at everything. I remember this one giant store that had a fridge full of congealed cow's blood. Gross. What do people use that for anyway? But apart from the nasty items that frighten me, everything in these stores are just so colourful, new and unusual to me so I want to buy it all then go home and search for recipes to use the ingredients. Well, except for today I was looking at a bottle of pickled eel heads. I have no desire to cook with that. And don't get me started on the candy and snack food aisles. We would stand in this aisle and find the most outrageous candies and buy them, hoping to find the tastiest of the tasty. Most of the time they weren't very good. Luckily this is a tiny tiny store so I can't spend all day reading everything, but every so often I find something that I just have to buy. Today it was sweet and spicy broad beans. They're kind of like honey-roasted nuts, but they're roasted in chili spices and sugar. The first few I ate I wasn't sure if I liked them, but the more I ate the more I liked.

Tip of the Day: Don't be intimidated by foreign food grocery stores. Generally you can find great prices on foods you eat regularly (like rice, soy sauce and chili sauce) and most will have English in the labels as well. Chinese supermarkets are great!

And The Verdict Is....

Marks are in and the verdict is out. I get to graduate! I wasn't too worried about whether or not I got to dress up in the green and gold grad gown on Saturday, but it's a relief to see the marks and breathe a little easier. My Human Metabolism class had me a little worried considering I nearly broke down crying after I finished writing that exam. I guess it wasn't that bad after all! I am happy.



So, one week today I will be at the school, all dressed up and listening to some person tell us that now that we have these expensive pieces of paper and we now get to all be successful and the world is our oyster. Where did that expression even come from anyway?

Plus, mom and dad will be here in a few days! I just really really hope that the weather somehow does a 180 and the sun comes out. Even if just for a few days! But the idea of having the parents here makes me so happy. I miss my family.

Tip of the Day: After some minor research, "World is Your Oyster" comes from a Shakespeare play. Basically some guy said the world is his oyster and he planned to open with a sword, which I think means that the world is full of slimy masses of stinky shellfish that we have to swallow whole to avoid the texture. Makes sense to me.

I'm Confused

Now I am certainly the last person to ever ask for political advice. I admit that. I am embarrassingly lacking knowledge in Canadian government issues and yes, I know that is a bad thing to admit. But I do have a little something I want to talk about in regards to the upcoming election next week.

I have had so many people tell me that they are not voting for the party that they actually want to win because they, "know the party won't win anyway" so they don't want to waste their vote. They want their vote to count so they vote for the lesser of two evils between the top running parties. It's called Strategic Voting. Huh. Alright.



So my thoughts here are quite simple. I never talk politics, so the fact that this many people have all told me the same thing makes me wonder how many other people feel the same way. What if all of these voters actually voted for the person/people they want to run the country after all...and all of their votes added up to a number that put their party in a more favourable position? Does this not make sense?

What doesn't make sense to me is voting for someone you don't believe in just because that person winning will make your vote count. I think all this is doing is keep people from voting all together because they know their people won't win, so why bother. I don't want to give you any advice, especially bad advice involving politics, but if you do your homework and read up on these people who want to run our country, then getting out there and at least putting in a vote is worth it. Isn't it? I think so anyway.