I doubt I’ll have any readers now but that’s totally ok; this is going to be an outlet for me like it used to be and I’m looking forward to the feeling of release and contentment it used to give me.
The cliche rings true about hindsight; so many things are clear now and it honestly feels like not just a fog, but a full on heavy haze has been lifted.
I lost myself.
I spent years at such a low that it became my normal. I don’t blame him for wanting to leave.
He turned into a monster and did what he could to hurt me as much as he could in the end but I know that’s not who he is as a person. I hope he’s doing better.
I especially hope he’s doing better because I have never been this good. Not once in my life have I felt this healthy and capable.
I’m finally in a career I excel at, I am physically fitter, I have amazing friends surrounding me, my emotional intelligence and awareness have soared, and probably most importantly my mental health is in an amazingly regular place. This feeling of being not just ok, but being good is unfortunately foreign to me but I am so grateful for it. At the same time as being grateful I’m even more proud. I’m proud of myself for the work, for the growth, for the hardship I endured to get to where I am.
It has been a year since he told me to leave. The year has been grueling. I spent months in my friends’ basement crying every night. I was homeless. I was lost. I felt like I had nothing.
What I did have is so much love and support from friends and family. What I also didn’t realize I had was the ability within myself to push through the hardest year of my life.
– I would like to note, for clarity, that the gruel was not just due to my relationship ending (that sounds dramatic even if it were an eight year commitment) but it was being homeless, starting a brand new career, giving my dogs to my mother since I was unable to care for them, working professionally in a second language, and so forth.
–
The moral is I pushed, I worked, and I made it. I made it and I thrived. I am whole and happy. I am smiling everyday. I can be alone and feel ok, even if I stumble sometimes and need a friend to remind me that I’m ok.
I have found love again, which I unfortunately did not think was going to happen (again dramatic, I know), and I have found the ability to love myself again. I wish you all the same health and happiness.
Tomorrow is my birthday, as a gift to me, write down something that makes you feel happy on a deep level and put it in your wallet. Look at it when you’re having a rough day and hopefully you’ll remember that you can be good and whole again, trust me on this one.
When I really think back on all of the things Jeff and I have done together, it becomes quite evident just how good we are for each other and how much we’re able to encourage each other to actually get out and DO things.
Just the other day Jeff (finally) had a day off of work and we went out to Peggy’s Cove (followed by further activities, explained later). I’d never been so he decided to to take me out there since we’re in NS. It was a really beautiful day and made for an awesome visit.
Jeff was getting a little upset with me for sitting so close to the rocks, but I wanted to get a better look at everything!
That’s me sitting on the rocks by the by, photo courtesy of Jeff. After spending some time at Peggy’s Cove we actually went for a little hike. Jeff had found coordinates to this trail on this girl’s blog. It was a really cool hike through a plain (I guess it would be a called a plain?) created by a glacier so there were cool outcroppings of rocks, and boulders sitting in random spots that had been ‘set down’ by the retreating ice. It was a really cool trek! We spent about 3 hours hiking around on the rocks and through the vegetation, I would recommend to everyone!
After our hike we went to Your Father’s Moustache to watch the Leafs vs. Bruins game 7. I don’t usually cheer for the Leafs but I can’t stand the Bruins, so it was hard to watch the Toronto give up so many goals in the third period.
I used to avoid hockey like the plague but have recently (relatively speaking.. I’ve been watching it for about 2 years now) gotten into it. I think the basis of my aversion was the hockey players that I’ve met throughout my life, not the sport itself. I’m sure most of you have run into a douche or two who act especially awful when with their teammates/bros/boys. I find it a little easier to watch pro hockey knowing that they have families, and are a little more aware than the younger hockey guys I’ve had the.. pleasure.. of interacting with. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but in my head they’ve grown up from the jerks who wouldn’t think twice about gay bashing that they used to be.
Anyway, as always, thanks for reading! I hope you’re all enjoying the holiday today! At least, my Canadian readers.. sorry Americans… happy Monday I guess?
Welcome back to my life dear readers! It has been close to a year since I’ve updated this blog.
Most of you are aware already, but in case I have readers who aren’t, I no longer live in Edmundston, NB; I don’t work at the mill anymore and have since moved away and I am not even a little bit sad about it!
My employment in the states ended and at first it was a major blow, I was really sad and felt a little worthless to be honest. I didn’t really know what to do with myself. I moved back home with my parents, Jake and Iza in tow and was going to sink my teeth into professional job hunting.
I had a couple of interviews and things were going ok.. I don’t know what I would have done if my parents hadn’t welcomed me back home with such open arms and support. Especially when I was bringing two dogs along! Thankfully Zeke (my family dog) got along great with Jake and Iza.
This picture’s a little bit old, but still cute
Even though I had had a couple of interviews that felt like they’d gone well I didn’t land a permanent position. So I decided, almost on a whim, to go back to school.
It was getting to the point where I couldn’t afford to be unemployed anymore, what with car payments; student loan payments; and regular bills continuing to come in, so going back to school meant putting my loan payments on pause while I studied and hopefully making me more employable after graduating with a Masters Degree.
All of this brings me to now, I’m living in Halifax, was accepted to Dalhousie University to take my Masters in Environmental Engineering (with funding!) and I couldn’t be happier. It feels amazing to be studying something that I actually enjoy and have voluntarily signed up for. It’s so much easier to find motivation when it’s something you’re passionate about. My research project is on energy reductions in water treatment, so given that I’m a giant environmentalist and very interested in the world’s energy predicament this masters program has got me super excited.
I’ll be focussing on UV treatment of water, both drinking and wastewater, trying to reduce the amount of energy that process requires. So far I’ve got relationships with Halifax Water set up and I’m told I’ll be working with Cape Breton’s water commission as well! All of this gets me so pumped.
Though leaving Edmundston after the position at the mill didn’t work out seemed devastating at the moment, it was certainly a blessing in disguise (read: blessings aren’t really a thing, this is purely for expressional purposes). I’m living in a new, awesome city that I’ve always liked; Jeff lives here too (he’s taking a second degree at Dal as well!); my brother lives here; AND I’m doing research in a field that excites me.
OH! And my room mate also has a puppy! That means there are three dogs in my house. Three. Two super big ones, and one super small one. His name is Apollo and the three of them get along so well.
Small world story: Jamie (the room mate) ended up living with me because he lived with Jeff in PEI when Jeff first moved from Ontario! So Jeff knew Jamie was coming to Halifax and needed a place to live and told us to talk to each other.
Jamie’s awesome; it’s a great thing when your roommate isn’t just someone who helps pay rent and instead is a friend eh?
Everything’s coming up Brian.
I hope you are all doing really well, and thanks so much for reading!
A lot has happened since I last updated about wanting a pet!
Most of you probably already know that I actually adopted two puppies from a refuge in Madawaska County in Edmundston! Their names are Iza and Jake, they’re German Shepherd puppies and are brother and sister. I love them.
I’ve had a lot of people say things like, “Two dogs! That’s a lot of work!” or even “Why did you get two!?”. Well my friends, I work at least 8 hours a day, Monday-Friday, and so I didn’t really want to leave a puppy home alone for that long; I’ve wanted to have two dogs for the LONGEST time; and they’re brother and sister! They were just begging to be adopted together. All things considered together, how could I NOT adopt two? On top of that, the amount of work it takes to train two puppies is definitely not twice as much as one. I would hardly even call it much harder than one puppy. You have to do the exact same things for each dog… you feed them at the same time, you take them outside to use the bathroom at the same time, you pick up their poops the same way (so what if there are two rather than one? What’s that take.. an extra 15 seconds?). The ONE thing I can imagine would count as “more work” is trying to discipline them both when they do something wrong. I.e. if Iza’s chewing on something she’s not supposed to, she gets scolded; then if Jake decides to chew something else, he gets scolded. So yes.. maybe there is ‘more training’ to do, BUT do not overlook the fact that they see the other one being scolded and so typically when one gets scolded for something, the other one learns from it too. They’re also best friends and love to play with each other and it’s adorable. WEOO Puppies!
In other news, I moved into a new house! I wanted out of the apartment I was in because it was way too loud and didn’t have a yard for the dogs. It was fine when they were small and young, but big dogs can’t stay in an apartment like that. They needed room to run around, not to mention me not wanting to clean up their poop and pee so frequently from off of the balcony. The apartment was loud because it was downtown, right beside a Greco Pizza, so we heard their bomb cars coming and going at all hours of the night to do their deliveries, as well as the transfer trucks coming in the wee hours of the morning to deliver the stock for them. PLUS the dumpster sized garbage trucks that would come to empty the garbages, and they’re LOUD. Jeff and I literally slept with ear plugs in. So the new house takes care of that problem! It’s further away from work, but it’s not loud anymore, it’s in a nice neighbourhood with lots of green things versus pavement.
A guy I graduated with also works at the mill with me and he’s moved into the house too so now I have a roommate and someone to talk to, so the whole…
Home alone, trying to find something to do
has been slightly improved! We still sort of do our own things, since he likes sports and gambling and I’m not particularly adept at either… but it’s still great to have a friend around.
We’re both actually going back to Fredericton this weekend! I’m driving the two of us and the dogs there Friday afternoon. Pumped for the split in gas cost! Win-win situations are the best.
He’s going to visit friends and… I think there’s something else he was planning on doing.. now I feel like a bad friend for not remembering.
I’m also going to visit friends, but the frosh week concert is that weekend too and it’s DRAGONETTE! I’m so fucking excited.
Martina of Dragonette
My wonderful friend Natalie said we (me and the dogs) can stay with her which is nice since another friend had planned on letting me stay but his landlord vetoed it because of the dogs.. blurg.
OH WELL! Everything’s working out nicely and life is hanging out on the positive side of the spectrum 🙂
If only I got to see Jeff a little more often, then life would be pretty close to perfect. (He left Saturday morning for school to take his second degree).
I hope the update left you all feeling a little more filled in on my life and a little more intrigued in the idea of having two dogs around hahhaha
Thanks for reading!
Did anyone else notice the double whammy title to this post!? Talking about moving and living in Edmundston AND it’s a Dragonette song? I’m so clever. You don’t have to tell me.
I’ve been living with this allergy my whole life, despite my attempts to “expose” myself to cats to maybe develop a tolerance or something. So naturally I’ve been dealing with being around cats by getting stuffed up, having my eyes water, and sneezing uncontrollably afterwards for years.
You’d think that’d be enough to make me decide to stay away from them! You’d think..
Lately however, I’ve been having a very strong desire to have an animal in the apartment. Jeff and I would never get a dog since we live in an apartment and making a dog live in such a small space is just cruel. I’ve thought about lizards or something but I just don’t know enough about their care, plus they’re just not quite as loving. So I keep finding myself going back to the idea of a cat.
Somewhere in my mind I see myself finding a hypo-allergic breed that I can adopt from a shelter and we’ll live a happy life together. But that probably won’t happen. I’ve also developed a hatred of cats.. but the more I think about it I think it might mostly be from the allergy. I DO however have an issue with cats being one of the very few species that hunt just for fun. They kill because they can.. so that kind of sucks.
😐 Right?
Also they treat their owners like inferiors and that we OWE them food and attention for how ‘perfect’ they are. Eff that cat! You’re a cat! Get over yourself and go poop in the box I’ve bought for you, you piece of crap.
Still! With all of these emotions.. my longing to have a pet is stronger and I still want a cat (even if only because we can’t have a dog. And no one had better say that we should just get a small dog; they’re just not worth it! Why have a dog if it can’t wrestle back, actually cuddle up next to you, or be friendly with visitors rather than just yippy and afraid).
This is all leading to my trip to the humane society today. I took my brother because he was feeling a little down, his best friend moved across the country today, so send him some positive thoughts. I didn’t go looking to actually adopt a cat, but the feeling just won’t go away. I want a pet so badly! What do I do? There are two kittens there that I think are friends and they both loved me too and they were really cute and purred all the time.. they were playful and not all squinty-eyed and mean like some can be. I want them.
The problem? I fell in love with these kittens, but as soon as I had decided it was time to go back home I was already stuffed up and snotty. Blerg. I don’t really like the idea of taking allergy medication everyday.. so what’s a good way to approach this issue? Your thoughts and suggestions are very welcome!
I’ve decided to put myself on a tight schedule again.
For too long I’ve fallen into the wonderful laziness that came from finishing my final year at school as pretty much a part time student, and now working leaves me my evenings and weekends open. Unfortunately for me I’ve been making poor choices about what to do with that time.
I’m going to start actually forcing myself to get up out of bed in the mornings. Earlier for work, and not late into the morning on the weekends regardless of how tired I am. I’m committing myself to acting as if I were still swimming competitively and didn’t matter whatsoever how tired you were, you HAD to swim.
This MIGHT be me soon
So what’s the matter if I’m a bit tuckered out during the weekday? So what if I CAN sleep for 12 hours on the weekend. I don’t need to at all and I know my body will thank me for it. I’ve never been in worse shape, I’m honestly in the worst shape I’ve ever been in my whole life so I’m making a promise to myself to change that! I actually went for a run tonight as a first step to being in shape again.
So anyway. In other news! I’m still working away at the mill. Starting to really get some ground under my feet and am working on a couple of projects! So hopefully things will only keep getting better. I’m a really great worker, but sometimes when my superiors don’t explain to me just what needs to get done and assume I know how a paper mill works.. I end up being pretty confused and don’t know what the first step is. BUT like I said it’s getting better and I’m working on a couple of projects, some of which I’ve spear headed on my own so I’m pretty proud of that.
In some other good news Jeff and I have been dedicated to the “only Canadian products” grocery shopping plan and it’s awesome. We’ve started buying some veggies and fruits we don’t normally buy just because they’re from Canada. Last time I told you about the garlic scapes that we bought accidentally that turned out to be really really damn good. Well last trip to the grocery store Jeff came home with Bok Choy (from Ontario!). We’ve been experimenting in trying to cook them in some delicious way but they seem to be pretty simple. Relatively bland but really versatile. You can kind of do anything with Bok Choy.
Moving on, I worked over the weekend for someone else at the mill. I actually volunteered! How about that?
So I was doing a job that’s not at all like my daily job but is part of a routine schedule through the year. I have to do a couple of weekends through the year but in exchange for the more or less two half days the weekend requires you take a ‘comp’ day off the next Friday (typically, but you can take it whenever). SO this is all leading up to my most exciting bit of news; I’m going home this weekend for 10 days!!!
I’m taking Friday off, and the whole next week. I can’t wait. Going camping with my dad and brothers, and then again with my friends (I think, plans are still in the making), and I’m hoping/assuming I’m going to drink my body weight’s worth of wine.
I had written out a good, full bodied post a week ago, but I accidentally closed the browser and lost it. wahh.
I might make this post almost point form…
I’m drunk right now. Point one. Coincidentally when I typed point it got ‘typo’d’ into pinot. There must be a message, even though I’m drinking red wine.
Currently I’m listening to Aladdin music while finishing off my bottle of red. I think I MIGHT be the typical gay.
Tonight Jeff and I have been playing skyrim. We’ve taken the night ‘off’ because we had a busy day 🙂
Lately we’ve been buying local stuff from the market that happens to be across the street from our apartment and today we bought some strawberries, a bottle of local wine, and what we thought were beans.
Tonight for supper I made rice with mushrooms, onion, and red pepper, intending to make it a side to “chicken” and the assumed beans but when I took the beans out of the bag we bought them in.. I realised they weren’t beans at all.
They were long, curled up, and had thicker bits at the end. Not beans.
This was a concern for a bit, thinking that maybe they weren’t edible, or that we were cooking a vegetable that was supposed to be raw, or cooked slowly or something. I braved this bold new plant and took a bite of our quickly cooked (boiled) green string-like vegetable. Turns out they were garlic scapes, and not beans at all!
If you’re ever able to pick up some garlic scapes, or garlic tops, DO IT. They’re so delicious! It was like, sweeter, garlic-flavoured beans. I cut them up and mixed them into the rice+veggies mix I had made, and added the fake chicken strips into the mix as well to make an amazing stir fry. Fucking tasty.
(Not a pretty photo)Since then I’ve bought the Bethesda package from the Steam summer sale and now have three video games to play on my computer. Jeff and I had been sharing his computer to play skyrim but I bought it for my own computer (along with two other games in the ‘collection’ I bought) so I’ll be able to entertain myself when he moves to Halifax for school.
I can’t really be bothered to type out more.. maybe tomorrow?
Thanks for keeping up with my blog all, I really do appreciate it. I’ll be more informative tomorrow.
It has almost been nine months since the last time I wrote. I can’t really believe that this blog fell to the wayside so easily… I could’ve made a baby in the same amount of time.
I last wrote about being back in Fredericton and Jeff being with me and not in Regina; that seems like a past era of my life now. Since going back to Fredericton, Jeff and I lived happily while I finished my degree (in chemical engineering for those not that close to me) and Jeff worked through the days so that he didn’t go crazy trying to figure out what to do during the day. That problem may have reared its ugly head again though, more on that later.
Christmas quickly came and with my very meagre exam schedule I had a lot of time off! Jeff drove to Ontario to be with his family for as much time as he could over the break. After I wrote my exams I flew out there to meet them as well! We spent a few weeks there and then drove home to Charlottetown to spend Christmas with my family too. It was a big step in our relationship for Jeff to be away from his family for Christmas and with mine, and as far as things on my side go, spending the break at my house and meeting all of my family. All in all it was a great vacation! There were gifts given, food eaten, fights had, resolutions found, and wine drank. I couldn’t have asked for a whole lot more.
A quick breakdown I know, but that sums it up pretty well I think! I guess at some point during the break was our anniversary as well. But we don’t really know the date and it’s an anniversary of time spent dating so it’s not that crucial yet anyway right?
After Christmas I continued my studies and Jeff kept working. I was focussing most of my efforts on my Plant Design course which involves the complete design of a chemical plant for a client. It’s a full year course (I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it here before or not) in which you’re grouped into teams and each team has a client for whom they have to take their idea, technology, or potential new method and design a facility to make it work! Our team designed a new form of biodiesel production plant using a new technology from an Atlantic Canadian company. In a nutshell we took a by-product that normally gets created and used the technology to shift it into its plasma state and then pyrolyzed it to produce heat and energy to be reused in the overall process!
The whole course was a royal pain in the ass, took up all of my time, and usually led us into dead ends and unknown territory; but hey! I’m told that that’s the point. I will admit that I learned a LOT from it.
BioDiesel Fuel
My plant design group at the Iron Ring CeremonyOh yeah! I got my iron ring too.. probably should’ve mentioned that.
Iron Ring!Fast forwarding again, at the end of the year Jeff went back to Ontario alone because, again, I had an exam to write, but mostly because his niece was due to be born! So I went home for a bit, went back to Fredericton, wrote my exam, and flew out afterwards (same as at Christmas time).
I can’t get enough of AJ (Jeff’s nephew, in case you’ve forgotten), he just turned 3 and he’s the absolute best. On top of that was the new baby that Jeff went out early to welcome to the world! Drew was born almost exactly when she was due and is so cute. She’s perfectly well behaved, already has a full head of hair, and has (though not until after we left Ontario) started smiling!
Colouring with my favourite little manDrew!I always have a great time seeing Jeff’s parents and going to Ontario to visit his family is always looked forward to. His brother and sister-in-law (AJ and Drew’s parents) are some of the kindest people I’ve met. I should probably consider myself lucky to have that sort of relationship with my boyfriend’s family, though to be honest all that I have to really compare it to is one bad example and the movies, so I don’t really know. Either way seeing Jeff’s family makes me happy every time.
We drove from Ontario to Fredericton, stopping in Edmundston to check out the apartment we’d just started renting (more on that in a bit as well). I graduated with a bachelor’s in chemical engineering with Jeff, my parents, and my grandmother all there cheering me on. I’m getting a little worked up now just thinking about how lucky I am to have had people like that smiling at me as I accomplished one of my life goals.
Parents and Mama.. we were all so photogenic that day….After graduation, with the help of my parents and Jeff (my grandmother waited back in Fredericton) all of my belongings, as well as Jeff’s, were moved to Edmundston. Now the reason we’ve moved to Edmundston is because I’ve landed a job as a Process Engineer at Twin Rivers Paper in Madawaska, Maine which is only minutes from Edmundston, NB.
Since I’ve sort of started my ‘real’ life, live relatively far from home (a 7 hour drive), and need to cross the border every day I actually bought my first car! A bit scary, but it was a pretty good deal at 0% financing so I decided to go ahead and make my first big purchase! As it turns out, I couldn’t be much happier with my new Nissan!
My new car!
Jeff and I both just got new computers too actually. I was giving myself a graduation present, and since my old laptop was 5 years old I figured a new computer would probably be a good investment. I shopped around for a long time trying to find the right one and ended up with a new HP Pavilion dv6. Since I was giving myself a present and because I was starting a pretty good job soon I decided to go all out and get a really good computer rather than get an ok one and save a few dollars. Turns out it was on sale for a great price and Jeff got one too!
Now I’m here in Edmundston, working in Maine, living with Jeff.. I really can’t complain a whole lot. Having a friend or two my age at work wouldn’t be turned away, but if that’s the only issue then I can certainly live with it for some time. This is where Jeff going crazy trying to find something to do sort of comes back into play again. He doesn’t currently have work here in Edmundston and is going a little nuts trying to find things to do during the day while I’m at work and neither of us know anyone in the city. Have any suggestions for activities?
That’s all for now I guess! I’ll update again soon. I have the time to do it now so I don’t have much of an excuse not to.
Hope you’re all great!
My only excuse is having a blast and loving my vacation.
So last time I posted I was on my way to Forest to meet Jeff’s family, having stopped at Niagara Falls. I’ll now try to sum up the past month quickly, for your sake!
I already told you about getting to his parents’ house and meeting his mom right away. She gave me a hug right off the bat after I extended my hand. She shook it but then said I’m gonna give you a hug and pulled me in. I’ll spare you the detailed breakdown of the weeks I spent in Ontario just because there were a lot of days elapsed. Long story short is that everything went really well and his parents (seemed to) like me! Jeff’s nephew also now owns my heart.
Apple picking with the little man
One thing I SHOULD tell you all about is Cedar Point Park! Jeff, his mom, and I went there soon after arriving in Forest and spent two days. The park is in Ohio, so I won’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of it, I hadn’t either. When Jeff told me about it he was singing the park’s praises, so I looked it up and found out that it’s been rated the best amusement park in the world for the past 13 years!
We spent the entire first day on roller coasters. No filler rides or taking breaks in between! Just roller coasters. Amazing.
The second day Jeff’s mom didn’t come with us but Jeff and I went back and spent about half of the day in the water park attached and then went back and rode some of our favourite rides again.
A vital note is also my realization of just how addicted I am to garlic fingers.. ordering a pizza to our hotel room in New York and then again in Ohio without garlic fingers was so WEIRD and wrong. Dear The rest of the world, get garlic fingers. Sincerely, people who are doing it right.
My kryptonite
Some other highlights of my trip through Ontario included visiting friends in Toronto overnight and then more friends in London! It was really great to see some old friends again and some friends that I didn’t expect to get to see again anytime relatively soon. I was very happy!
P.s. this is the view (no zoom) from my friends’ balcony in Toronto!!
The only editing I did was adding a filter with Instagram!
On our way back from Toronto we stopped in London to see another friend of mine I used to proctor with. When I said goodbye to him last April I didn’t think I was going to get to see him again and it made me pretty upset. Thankfully I was able to see him again and I really hope it happens again! This is the beautiful view from his apartment in London! So pretty.
I wish I saw this every time I looked out my window
On the way back home we stopped overnight in Québec City so that we didn’t have to drive for 16 hours straight. If you haven’t been to that city, GO. It is SO pretty and the architecture is amazing. We also expected to be the victims of cold shoulders and disgruntled Quebecois because we aren’t french, but everyone we talked to either spoke English well or didn’t care at all! It was a really great pit stop and I suggest you spend some time there if you can!
Chateau FrontenacInside the Chateau, taken from… the 20th floor I think?I’d like to live here for sure
Now, I’m back in Fredericton and after some plan changes so is Jeff! No more goodbyes 🙂
Life is really good right now and I can’t stop smiling. Everything’s going well and I feel like it’s a bit undeserved and I’m waiting for something to go wrong.. but here’s hoping that doesn’t happen!
I actually have an excuse as to why I haven’t updated in so long this time!
Jeff and I had to pack our lives up and move out of our apartment in Fredericton. What complicated this whole process? We had to be out of our subletted apartment on August 25th but I wasn’t allowed to move into my apartment for the next year until September 1st… whaddup homeless?! So I called the landlord and got a bit of an extension and we were allowed to stay until the 27th or August but we were still in a bit of a pickle as to what to do with our stuff.
Jeff had always planned on packing his stuff up permanently to take home with him since he’s going away for those six months of training but we still had to put my stuff somewhere.. including a bed..
Thankfully my roommate Sunny has a most wonderful girlfriend Shannon who offered her apartment for us to store our stuff including our bed in an extra bedroom.
Things have a way of working out sometimes don’t they!?
So HANYWAYS. We packed our apartment up, took our belongings to Shannon’s house, slept in her spare room for the night, and then headed to Ontario Saturday morning.
Not bad packing considering we’re gone for three weeks!
Our original plan was to drive all the way to Niagara Falls on Saturday, 14+ hours of driving, stopping for some food and to switch drivers. It turned out to be quite a trek though so we stopped in a city called Oriskany just outside of Utica, New York to sleep. On the drive out I remembered talking to my cousin about stopping at her place while we were on the road because she hadn’t met Jeff yet, so we ended up making two overnight stops on the journey rather than driving the whole way in one go as we had planned. That turned out to be a much better idea. We were better rested, not cranky, not sore from sitting in the car, and well fed!
So after stopping in NY, and just before stopping in Burlington, we actually went to Niagara Falls! It was so beautiful. Lots of tourists obviously, and there are lots of tourist traps, but the falls themselves were awesome. Jeff asked if I wanted to do the maid of the mist because he’s been on it before, and I told him I didn’t really care. I thought it’d be nice, but wouldn’t be disappointed if we didn’t.. I decided that if it was more than 30 dollars I wouldn’t do it, but otherwise we would. Turns out it only costs $16.50! Ridiculous right? So of course we did it.
Not bad for iPhone pictures eh?Sexy Ponchos
Totally worth it. The feeling and sound of being right in the middle of the falls is amazing. It’s loud but quiet, it’s scary but calm… loved it. If you’re in Niagara and debating whether or not to ride the Maid, then definitely give it a shot. You’ll not regret it. We also ate at the Rainforest Cafe in Niagara. Pretty neat set up! A little more geared towards kids, but it was more fun than subway!
Rainforest CafeMight be a bit dark… this is how it looks inside
**Sidenote, when we left Burlington to head to Forrest we stopped at Ikea too; I’d never been to one before!
First Time!
When we did finally get to Jeff’s parents’ house in Ontario, we spent two nights here before going back to the states again! Lord have I had enough of the US of A. It is the WORST. So much obesity, stupidity, and SO much about God and Jesus from people who don’t even understand the religion and the history. GUHHHHH. If nothing else being there completely reaffirmed my devotion to atheism.
RIDICULOUS
On a lighter note, we went to Cedar Point Park in Ohio, rated the world’s best amusement park for the past 13 years! I know! I hadn’t even heard of it either! How can it be the world’s best if no one knows it exists right? After having spent two days there however, I can confirm that it IS the best. I had an AMAZING time there.
We left Ohio, did a little shopping in the states, bought some beer at the duty free of course, and came back to Forrest.
Since being in Forrest for this small amount of time we’ve played it pretty low-key. I met a lot of Jeff’s family, fell in love with his nephew (he’s 2), and caught up on our sleep. We have some plans to see some of his old friends and some of my friends in London/Toronto in the coming couple of weeks.. but I’m excited for being able to take it easy for a little while; I haven’t had a vacation in a long time.
Pterodactyls And Veggies 
