Archive | April, 2011

Just Go With It

23 Apr

Yesterday a friend and I were both worrying about all the things we wanted to get done this weekend. Despite having a four day weekend, there never seems to be enough time to do it all. Finally we decided to run some errands together in an effort to combine productivity with catching up and hanging out. We were going to make a list, an itinerary and set a time limit of how long it was going to take us.

But sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

We started off with good intentions. We were going to stop off at London Drugs to take advantage of the Earth Day sale on laundry detergent. One of us, and I won’t say which one, was also down to the last four squares of toilet paper.

But first we stopped off at a consignment store where we found a few cute dresses. It was decided this would be summer of dresses. Then we stopped off to try on bathing suits. And then another dress. And then a shoe sale. And off to a warehouse sale where the elbows had to come out as we  dug around for a deal. This nearly finished me off and I insisted we stop and find some food. We kept saying we’d get to London Drugs after a few more stops.

We walked up Main Street in search of a sunny patio when we ran into two of our friends who had staked out a perfect patio and were about four beers in. Pretty soon we were settled in and calling a few more friends to join us. Eventually the sun went down and we moved inside. Pretty soon we were packing up and heading out to go bowling, but not before I shared a high school style slow dance with our female server. (Did that really happen? Yes. It did.)

We only knew one person out of the group we were bowling with, but that didn’t stop us from winning. I overheard one guy say, “I told you to bring girls, not bowling pros who would make us look like fools.”

Turns out the bowling was part of someone’s birthday and were told there was a party at the penthouse after. I thought we were headed off to The Penthouse to watch strippers, but turned out these guys lived in an actual penthouse. And there was birthday cake and mom-made spanikopita.

So what started off as a trip to buy toilet paper ended as a dance party by the front door at 2:00 am. It was time to go home and worry about buying toilet paper and laundry detergent tomorrow.

That Cat

9 Apr

Some days I love having a cat. She’s cute. She’s cuddling. She’s playful, full of attitude and we’re often glad to see each other after a long day apart.

Today is not one of those days.

I decided to take the time to make myself a proper breakfast before starting a big day of studying for my final exam next week. Not only would it give me the energy to power through uninterrupted, it would give me some time to wake up, relax and catch up on a few of my favourite blogs. I was taking a proactive approach at preventing procrastination!

I was sitting down enjoying my french toast, strawberries and a latte, when Mittens jumped up on the table. This is a common problem we have, but a good soaking from the spray bottle usually has her running for cover elsewhere. We went through this routine several times (what can I say, she’s a slow learner) when I went to give the spray bottle a shake to warn her of what was coming. She scooted behind the laptop and jumped from the table. In the process, she knocked over a vase of flowers. I scrambled to catch it before water was everywhere. I was too late. All at once I was picking up a stack of old photographs, pushing the laptop out of the way, dipping my hair in the sticky maple syrup on my plate, and catching the chair I’d been sitting in from tipping backwards and crashing to the floor.

It hasn’t been the morning I had planned, but hey, life rarely is, now is it? And despite the crashing, the mess, the swearing and the cleaning up, we’re back to being cute, cuddly and sleepy.

Nails

5 Apr

I’m usually pretty modest, but there are two things in life that I can confidently say I’m skilled at. Parallel parking and painting my nails.

An odd combination, no?

Overheard

2 Apr

This past week was exhausting. I was constantly in a bad mood, constantly on the go, constantly stressed and wondering how I was going to get through the next few months. I decided I’d end the week by having a quick meal with a friend from my days at UVic, before going home and crumbling into a mess on the couch.

As I was standing on the corner waiting for her to cross the street, a mother and her lanky, almost an adult son walked by and I overheard her say to him, “Those friends you make in university, they last a lifetime.” As I stood there under an awning, sheltered from the rain, the scene finally put a smile on my face. It was true. Here we were living our lives, both caught up in our different worlds, but still friends. We know where we’ve both come from, known who we used to be and seen each other develop into who we are today.  Those are formative, important years. And formative, important friendships that will last a lifetime.

It was like the universe was giving me a reminder, a little bit of comfort, and saying everything was going to be okay. The lesson for me? Listen to what’s around me. Sometimes things aren’t as bad as they seem.

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