September!

September was really good to us. We wanted to cram a bunch of adventures in before the holidays and of course...the impending winter season. So we finally took the ferry to Peaks Island, bussed to Boston and once again, borrowed our lovely friend's car to make the trip to Acadia National Park. Here's some pictures..

Peaks Island

So we have every Tuesday off together. It's the only day I have off now that I'm working two jobs so we take advantage of them! Peaks Island is just off the coast of Portland and there's a ferry that runs ALL the time so I'm not sure how we've just gotten out there. But it's beautiful and such a quaint little Maine island and we will be visiting again.

Boston



Boston is a short and cheap bus ride from us so we thought it would be a nice day trip. What a great city it is. We've both never been so it was nice to experience a new place together. Beacon Hill was my favorite part of the city and if someday we strike gold we will live there. At least for a little while as we seem to be nomadic.



 

Acadia National Park

 

 

And then there was Acadia.. We left bright and early Monday morning (I somehow lucked out and got two days off at Starbucks!) and headed up the coast on Route 1 in our friend's beautiful station wagon. We didn't have any plans as to where we would stay or what we would do but we knew hiking a mountain was a priority. We hiked Pemetic Mountain, stood too close to the cliffs on the coast, and stayed in a sleezy motel (as a fear came over me that by sleeping in a car in the woods I was setting myself up to be a character in a Stephen King novel). It was a beautiful two days and I am so happy we got to experience such an amazing part of the coast.

 

In conclusion, we live in an incredible part of the country and so much is within our grasp to discover. We struck gold when we pointed at a map and chose Portland, Maine as our move destination! Thanks for reading, as always.



One Year

Beautiful sailing buddies

An excellent captain

In our wedding garb

Where we said our vows again!

The glorious church that lent us their altar

We stumbled upon this beautiful spot when we were very lost!



We had a beautiful one year wedding anniversary. Our friend allowed us the use of her car which made things so much easier! Kennebunkport gave us some amazing clam chowder and marvelous scenery. Our above mentioned friend has a brother who lives on a sailboat and he captained us around Casco Bay. We only had a day and a half off together but we made use of every minute. This time completely captured the essence of our relationship. We saw the night stars like I've never seen before, tried to break into the Desert of Maine and ate til our tummies just couldn't hold anything more.
Thanks for reading!

Our home and hood

 Oh Penske truck..We had a very difficult time looking for a place to park out little beast the first night and were very excited to get rid of it the next day. We had to do some shopping and since we don't have a car we decided to do it while we had the truck. This ended at about one but we still had to search for a gas station and since our gps is a bitch she took us all over town before we finally ended up at the Penske rental office. Which was closed. Since the office is six miles from our home we were planning on taking a cab but with no phone to call one we had yet another night with the truck. We were finally rid of him the next day and an 8000 pound weight was lifted off our shoulders.

We didn't realize how many things we had until we moved into our tiny apartment. Before we even got our chairs and my desk up the stairs we realized we didn't have the space or the need for them. We left the chairs in front of our building expecting to take them to the Goodwill but one of our neighbors asked if he could have them and he swept them away. I had about seven boxes of clothes, yet I still wear Scott's, and boxes of knick knacks and posters. We were blessed with huge windows and walls so we were able to fill those with all of our art and personal items. I thought I would feel cramped and crowded to live in a 250 sq ft apartment with a man and a chinchilla. But I've never felt more free and open. I can feel Scott and I growing closer already, working together to make our small area a home. Without very much space we've discovered what we thought we needed we truly just wanted. We're not crowded by stuff and unnecessary items. Living right downtown and paying cheap rent also helps.

because tea and coffee mix with pasta in a tiny apartment

People have asked me if we think we'll fight all the time because we're in a small space, or how we deal with having such little room. To all of those people, I am going to answer this once so refer everyone to this post. We love each other enough to grant the other space if needed and go for a walk. We respect each other enough to not make the other feel bad if they do need space. We adore each other enough that we want to be cramped in one room together. And there are a lot of people who would love a space as big as ours. So we don't "deal" with it, we enjoy it and appreciate it.

Our Adventure

It’s been a while since I’ve written on here but we’ve been really busy lately. We’ve been thinking about moving to the states, specifically New England, for quite a while now. After I went to Florida in May I realized that we needed to be back by the sea. So at some point we looked at a map and chose Portland, Maine. We looked on Craiglist and found an overwhelming amount of jobs. I called a Starbucks downtown and the manager told me that he needed help so he hired me on the spot. After that everything just fell into place. There were a few kinks that needed to be worked out but it all out played out pretty smoothly and before we knew it we were on the road in a 12 foot Penske truck. 

I must start with saying goodbye to my family I had really only just began to know about a year ago when I moved to London. My Auntie Fran wanted to hold a going away party for us at her house so we drove to Seaforth with my Granny and Gramps, were welcomed by my Uncle Steve and Auntie Fran, my cousin David and his son Tyler who were soon followed by my cousins Martha and Mark with their kids Erin and Eli. We ate pizza and talked about the family, took pictures and said our goodbyes. It wasn’t easy. My Auntie Fran had quickly become a role model for me while living here. At 70 she does tai chi, is publishing her first book and is the one of the best damn grandmas I’ve ever seen. She is more up to date on pop culture than I am. She’s an extraordinary person and I will miss her greatly.

Auntie Fran's peonies

My mum and I had basically held it together until the night before. My Granny, Gramps, Scott, Aunt Sara and mum had gone out to dinner that night just to say our goodbyes. While saying goodbye to Granny she told me she loved me, which is a rarity, and I broke down. I’m terrified that the next time I see her she won’t remember who I am. That’s the way her disease goes but it’s still a harsh reality to face. My mum and I had a really hard time at this point and both just couldn’t hold it in anymore. The day of was very busy so we were pretty distracted but it was still weighing on both of us. We said our goodbyes, to both my mum and Molly girl, and were on our way. We needed to make a stop before heading out of town and it was there that my mum called to tell us we had forgotten the blender. So she met us there and we had to say goodbye again. Saying goodbye once was hard enough. I’ve never been so far away from my mum and not knowing when I will see her again is really difficult for me. I already miss her so much. 

Back to being on the road..driving a small moving truck through a town is no easy task. Knowing that I would have to do the whole drive on my own was a daunting future for me. We had planned on getting to Albany, New York that first day. Since we couldn’t start our journey until 3 in the afternoon that seemed like a good stopping place. But of course, the line at the border we chose to cross over was huge. We waited there for almost an hour and a half so we were very behind and could only stop in Utica, 90 miles west of Albany. We woke up early, with about 4 hours of sleep, and drove the rest of the way to Portland. We got in around 1, got our apartment keys, and started feeding the meter outside of our building. We had to move the truck after two hours so we worked quickly. Well, Scott did most of it. Thank goodness for him. We’re on the sixth floor so moving wasn’t easy. We are grateful for our height now though since we have a view of the bay.

After finally finishing that we had to find a place for our Penske so we drove around the city until we finally asked a policeman who turned out to be very nice and helpful and let us park at the government building. We found a great independent coffee shop with wifi and let our parents know we arrived safely, as we don’t have cell phones or internet. We asked the barista where to get good seafood and he directed us to a hole in the wall that fisherman frequent. He asked if we wanted something more trendy but we wanted nothing of that so we headed to Gilbert’s. Oh my goodness. We took a table on the patio by the bay, ordered the clam strips, lobster roll and crab meat sandwich. It was the best seafood I’ve had just shy of the dauphin we had in the Keys with our friend’s family. The lobster was like butter, just melted in your mouth. As was the crab. I could honestly go on and on about it. But I’ll just make you jealous and that’s not nice..

I will write more about our struggles with the Penske, getting rid of boxes and exploring this beautiful town we’re quickly beginning to love later. For now, have a great day and enjoy everything. Thanks for reading.

Mother's Day

Every Mother's Day for the past twenty one years of my life has consisted of a card or something else that was relatively simple. Since my Granny's Alzheimer's is progressing rapidly and my mother is a goddamn saint who deserves more than a card on the only day out of the year set to celebrate her role in my life I wanted to throw a party for them, the two women who I owe my entire world to. My Granny's birthday is also May 14th so it was sort of a joint party for that celebration as well.

Crepe flowers

So about a month ago I grabbed my crafty husband and a cup of coffee and a few pins later we had decided on decor and the theme of the soiree. We spent hours making flowers out of crepe paper and a beautiful flower arch(which we completely forgot about and never put up). We thought that just having a grazing lunch with a few appetizers (with something meaty and hearty for my grandfather) was the best idea so it wouldn't crowd my Granny's mind with a bunch of options on her plate. I have been collecting tea cups and pots for a little while now and thought having an outdoor spring tea party would be a beautiful idea. I had planned on making teapot shaped cookies and as I tried the night before they burned a few times before I threw the dough away and decided on picking up everything at the market the next day and calling it good. The weather was also not cooperating with our outdoor tea party idea so we scratched it, brought the party indoors and bought a lot of food at our lovely weekend market.

The day of my darling Aunt Sara came into town! It's been a few weeks since I've seen her so I was very excited she was able to come. I also rarely have weekend days off so it all worked out really nicely. I asked her to pick up flowers for Granny so she brought a beautiful bouquet of peonies for her and a bouquet of parrot tulips for my mum! They were all gorgeous and I was very thankful since I had forgotten flowers for my mum...I wanted to take lots of pictures of my family as I feel we don't have enough so I set up the timer on my camera and after many, many pictures we caught quite a few funny ones that express each of our personalities so well.

It was a great day and we all had so much fun. My Granny left me saying "This was the best day. Well, maybe not the best day but it was fun." So I took her honesty to heart and smiled.

My mum is a wonderful and strong person. She's everything anyone could ever ask for in a mum and I'm glad she enjoyed the day devoted to her.

Spring is FINALLY here

Trees blooming

This winter has been a very long one. Not being able to spend much time outside has definitely brought upon some serious seasonal depression. So now that it's actually dress weather (eee!) we're outside as much as possible. And it's beautiful. I've had two consecutive days off this week (woah) and we took advantage of them! 


Yesterday we went on a walk downtown and stopped to look at all the flower shops. I have my eye on a particularly large echeveria and might have to snag one up soon. We stopped at a restaurant on Dundas that has the best nachos and patio in London. After a pitcher of beer we headed home and had dinner on the back porch. Our bistro lights are back up and with the solar lights dotted around the yard it truly is magical at night.

Beauty

Pretty

I woke up early this morning and after a chai tea smoothie and some iced coffee I was raring to go! We didn't actually get out the door until around noon but we took Molly with us for a nice long walk and picnic by the river. Now Molly isn't the most in shape dog..we decided to follow her wherever she lead us and at one point she plopped down in the shade mid-walk, so we followed her lead and took a break. We ended up under a bridge by the river surrounded by canadian geese. Molly surprisingly didn't bother them but they made their position know and kept an eye on her the whole time. We didn't get back to the house until around 4pm. 

Handsome Husband

We had such a great two days off. The trees and flowers are blooming, the serotonin levels of the general population are high and everything is active. For it being such a long winter we're all so excited to see the sun and warmth again. Being from Florida we never had winters and I know that we've never appreciated feeling the sun's warm rays on our skin as much as we do now. Spring and fall are my favorite seasons. In the spirit of my favorite book coming out as a movie next Friday I'll end this with F. Scott Fitzgerald's analysis of fall and spring/summer in The Great Gatsby: “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” & “And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.” 

Doing myself good

       My husband is a very big part of who I am and who I'm becoming. When we met I was on a bit of a downward spiral and with the help of him and his beloved best friend, Bruce, I was able to pull out of it. However, as any woman, I have issues with self image and worth. But no matter how many times I disagree with him when he tells me I'm beautiful he never stops, and that is one of the many wonderful things about him. He gets frustrated of course but he prevails and every time he does I feel a little bit better about myself. It's not even just about my physical appearance it's the accomplishments I've made in my life. When I was younger I envisioned myself as successful by 21. My definition of success at that time was a bachelor's degree and an admission to grad school. Well folks, I've been in college for three years and have changed my mind so many times that I don't even have my Associates. I've been watching my friends get into the grad schools of their dreams and have been feeling a bit low about that. Today will be the beginning of me changing my definitions of "self worth/image" and "success".

      Starting today I will view my success as having found my husband and love of my life at the ripe age of 18. As having accomplished so many different subjects in college (psychology, finance, biology). As being alive and healthy. As knowing that we may never have a matching dinner set but we worked for everything we own. As never giving up. On anything. Some may view my constant changing in subjects as failures but I excelled in all of them. They weren't failures. They just weren't what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I couldn't see myself sitting at a desk, helping other people work out budgets, dissecting insects, or talking through other people's issues for the rest of my life. When I graduate from school, I will do what I love doing. I may be thirty but I will not be one of those people groaning through everyday just to pay off their mounds of student loans. And I think coming to that realization, is definitely a success. Let me finish this paragraph by saying this is MY definition of my own success. Not anyone else's. I am so proud of what all of my friends have accomplished. These are just my accomplishments : )

      When I talk about other's people I often incorporate their souls as well as their outside appearance. Actually I focus almost entirely on the person they are on the inside. But I've never been able to afford myself the same benefit. There are times when I don't even want to look in a mirror. Starting today I will afford myself the same right I give everyone else. I am a good person, I do good things for people and my friends and family mean the world to me. So if personality reflects beauty than I'd say I'm doing alright in that regard.

     Finally, beginning on this day, April 19, 2013 I will do my best to not ever disagree with my husband when he tells me I'm beautiful and worthy of everything life has to offer me. Putting this in writing is a sort of contract to both me and him. I may break it every once in a while but I will think of this every time I want to and will deter myself from doing so. Watching this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk  has made me suddenly realize that I am my own worst critic.

      I will end this by saying something nice about myself. I love my eyes. Ah! There, I did it! The first step to being completely happy with myself has been achieved and I already feel better. Thanks for reading!

Montreal

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My bouquet from my mum 

Inside the Basilica

The street outside our Inn

Our inn

Montreal Trip

Written on April 5th, 2013

I should preface this piece of writing but mentioning that I have had about 10 hours of sleep in the past two nights. 4 of those hours were spent on a bus. As I want this to be true of my thoughts at the time I’m writing it, I will not be editing this. No matter how anal retentive I can be about my writing after more and more reads.

With that said, I will begin. We started our trip in London, ON at 8:30pm on Thursday night, April 4th, 2013. We arrived at the bus station about 45 minutes early but as we are still very out of the loop of how to ride the bus we didn’t actually get into line until most of the bus was already waiting to board. We were forced to sit in the back, right next to the toilet. Literally, my shoulder was squished against the wall of the bathroom. There should be no such seat. This first bus took us to Toronto and we wound up being about half an hour early which did not help our wait time of already 1 hour and 40 minutes a bit. 

We decided that we would get something full to eat as snacks are very delicious but not often filling. So we walked around downtown Toronto and found a Pizza Pizza to hang out in for a little while before we headed back to the bus station. The Toronto Greyhound station has never ceased to confuse me. How people know what gate their bus is coming to is beyond me but after asking a few people in line we eventually found our spot, much closer to the front of the line this time. We spent about 5 hours on this bus. This was a surreal ride for me. Maybe because I was shocked at the amount of people who would choose to ride the Greyhound at 12:45am on a Friday morning or the places we stopped in the middle of nowhere that people actually got off at. I think it was more that I felt a sort of camaraderie with these people; a vampires of the Greyhound secret society or something. I’ve also never been more impressed with the way people can fold themselves into chairs to try to get some sleep. 

The Ottawa bus station was very small, thus much more manageable than Toronto’s. We found the bus to Montreal just fine and started the last leg of our Greyhound journey.

Basilica

Basilica Doors

Written on April 7th-8th, 2013

We arrived in Montreal right on time and quickly after found a taxi to take us to our hotel. Well, he dropped us off at Rue St Paul East, not West so we walked around a bit on the street until we finally found our destination. We didn’t complain much as the street was beautiful but Scott found that dragging the duffel bag on the cobblestone streets wasn’t an easy task. When we walked into the hotel 4 hours early for check-in, we didn’t expect to have a bed to sleep in, just wanted to drop our bags off and get a coffee. However the inn owner, Daniel, told us that our room would be ready at 11am so we walked to the nearest cafe for a croissant and a coffee and waited out the half hour or so there. Walking up the stairs we didn’t know what to expect from our room since my mum (ever so nicely) paid for it as my birthday present. We opened the door to two big windows, turquoise trim, wooden rafters, and most importantly a nice comfy bed. It was a beautiful room and we couldn’t have gotten nicer at a much more expensive hotel. We were also greeted by a bouquet of beautiful flowers from my mum. There were tulips, daisies, berries, lilies and more tulips. It was wonderful and smelled amazing the entire trip. We decided to take a nap that ended up lasting a couple hours more than we expected but when we woke we felt much better. We went to the Basilica. There are truly no words and the pictures don’t even begin to describe the beauty that is that place. Neither of us are very faithful people but we were both overwhelmed by the quiet, peaceful beauty of all the details, candles, statues and carvings. It was something we’ll never forget. We walked around old town and parts of downtown for a few hours before getting dinner and heading back to our room around 8pm. Shortly after we fell asleep and didn’t wake up until around 7am on my birthday to the smell of baking croissants downstairs. 

Monkeys from the Biodome!

Scott had planned on waking up early and surprising me with flowers but none of the floral shops were open so instead he handed me a  beautiful handmade card and we walked downstairs to enjoy an early breakfast to begin our day. Scott ordered a parmesan and tomato omelette and I got the smoked salmon omelette. We were given croissants with chocolate chips and mouth watering butter croissants as well. The coffee was fantastic but pastries and coffee are the Frenchies specialty so I should’ve expected greatness. For some reason we thought that walking to the exhibits we had planned on visiting that day would be a good idea so we started our day with that. It was a five mile walk on a cold but sunny day and it lasted a lot longer than we imagined. The pay off getting there without paying for a taxi or getting lost on the metro was worth it though so we prevailed. We started the day of exhibits with the Biodome. We weren’t sure what to expect from this because all of the explanations were in French but it was incredible. There were different parts of the dome that displayed different ecosystems of parts of Canada and the world. The first was the rainforest in which we saw monkeys, parrots and a blob that was supposedly a sloth! There was also the Gulf of St Lawrence with some disgusting looking fish, the mountains with river otters and porcupines and the Arctic with playful (and mostly lazy) penguins. 

Feeding the butterflies

We then hurried over to the Botanical Gardens before our Planetarium showing was to begin. We should have allowed for more time at the Gardens but we didn’t expect the massive amounts of people who would be pushing strollers through a three foot wide path and never moving out of the way. Either way the greenhouses were stuffed with flowers and plants and they were out-of-this world beautiful. The last greenhouse was filled with butterflies and flowers. There were many different kinds and it was an amazing experience. They would fly by our faces with such freedom I think we all envied them. 

One of the greenhouses

Greenhouse succulents

After the gardens we barely made it to our first showing at the planetarium, that opened that day, on my birthday! The first show was in a dome like room filled with bean bags and lawn chairs. The colors and music of the show were beautiful and we had a great experience here, even if I did get quite dizzy!  The next show was informational and looking back we should have been able to do this one before the first one as we didn’t quite know what was going on in that show. We were in a dome room again and were taught how to identify different constellations and stars. We learned about the galaxy and star clusters. It was actually very interesting! By this time we we had been at the museums for about five hours and were really achy from the walk so we decided to take a cab back to the hotel. Coming back we could really see just how far we walked!

A giant moth

All showered up and ready to go out for a fancy birthday dinner, I look in my bag and find no going out shoes! I had a black dress with black tights and all I had for footwear were brown elf boots and snow boots. So we took to the streets and found a boutique that imported all of their shoes from France, London and Italy. Needless to say, they were gorgeous. I found the perfect pair of little red heels to go with my black outfit and we were ready to head out! We went to Gibby’s where Scott got a Heineken to compliment his filet mignon and I got a MacAllen aged 12 to pair with my broiled lobster tails. Yummy! For dessert we got some sort of chocolate pie that we ate back at the hotel. It was quite possibly the best thing I’ve ever eaten and I’m certain I had a mouthgasm. We were pooped from the long day we had and stayed in watching SNL until falling asleep shortly before my day of birth ended. So strange being 21!

Our night out and my new red shoes!

On our last day in Montreal we woke up quite early to pick up our things and clean up the room a bit before heading down to breakfast which was, as always, impeccable. Wanting to go to Mont Royal to see the view of the city from the height we left right after breakfast. On our way we picked up a masque for myself which was imported from an artist who handmade it out of paper mache in Italy. It’s beautiful! Up at the top we wanted to reenact my grandfather’s proposal so Scott asked someone to take our picture and we surprised them when he got on one knee and asked me to marry him. They had no idea we were already married and were so very excited for us. A note, if you ever want someone to take a lot of cute pictures of you, pretend you are proposing and they will take plenty.

The beautiful mask I bought

We walked to the Latin Quarter where we stumbled across a very strange vintage thrift store that I’m not even sure how to explain. It was filled with many clothes, mannequins and just overall strange things. I bought a vintage scarf and a gargoyle for Scott’s friend Kevin. We found a Chinese bakery that was incredible and got a pizza for dinner before heading to the bus station.

It was the perfect birthday weekend. I really couldn’t have asked for anything better. The food was amazing, the city was beautiful and of course, the company was incredible. I realized just how patient, kind, and loving my husband truly is. I knew all this about him but after many shops, having to read a lot of different menus before finding English ones and stopping to look at all the flowers he never once grumped. In fact he even encouraged me to go find a pair of shoes for our night out. He is truly an amazing human being.

Scott pretending to propose 

Our ride home was stranger than the ride to Montreal. The bus to Ottawa was normal. Well, filled with normal looking people. I felt rather ill and sweaty the entire duration because the bus was so hot and I had two pairs of pants on from the day. When we got to Ottawa I took off my jeans and felt much better in my leggings. The ride to Toronto was interesting. Something must have happened over the weekend because there was security checking our belongings and making sure we weren’t bringing weapons on board. The man ahead of us reeked of weed and he gave us a strained look as she was swiping the metal detector over him and looking through his things. As everyone was getting on the bus I saw a boob. The woman in front of me had a loose fitting shirt on and apparently to stay comfortable had taken off her bra because when she lifted up her bag, I saw right down the armhole to her boob. Rather strange. Last to get on was a man who looked a bit out of it. He had a strange bobbish haircut that made him look like a cartoon and shortly after we departed he put on a cave hiking light to read that practically illuminated the entire front of the bus. The bus had a strange menagerie of smells that ranged from at first a smell of mold and bleach to the stench of a hot glue gun burning somewhere, to the smell of body odor lingering in the air. We weren’t sure what to make of the changing smells and tried not to think about it.

Arriving in Toronto we had about a two and a half hour wait before boarding our last bus to London. I went to get a bagel and coffee before sitting down to survey our surroundings and the people who could end up in the seats next to us. . This was a long wait and we were fairly anxious and ready to be home in bed with our Molly puppy.