Boxed In and Other States of Being



Credit: Adventures Along the Way

Ah, Booboo. This is Booboo's favorite spot. He has several preferred spots, but he spends more time here than in the other ones. It cracks me up when he squeezes all the way in like this.

In other news, spring seems to be here. By that I mean that the snow has stopped (well, our last snow was a week or so ago) and they have just today cleaned all the rocks and dirt out of the streets in our neighborhood. Now there are only a few patches where the snow/ice has yet to melt. It is lighter coat weather (which, by the way, is what I used to consider a "winter coat" until I moved out of the south). Cafés are starting to prepare their outdoor seating areas.

I find myself thinking about planting some herbs and flowers on the back porch, but it is still too soon to actually get started. I am interested in sewing some hanging bags to attempt to get them off the ground so that they will stay cat-poop-free. I am inspired by these (scroll down to see the "smart wall pouch"), but have a different design in mind.

I made the best lasagana I have ever made on Saturday, using a former college roommate's recipe. And on Sunday I made the worst muffins I have ever made. I was trying to salvage some not-very-good cream cheese icing by mixing it into the batter, and the muffins were a disaster too.

As for pursuing dreams, my continued efforts to pursue my artistic career have had some return. I've had a couple of opportunities so far and have two more lined up. Life is feeling less splintery. I am ready to welcome spring.

Splinter Season

Photo credit: Adventures Along the Way

It's been prime splinter season around here. Our "rustic," charming wood floors becomes dangerous for about half the year during winter when it's dry. Life has felt a bit splintery in other ways, too, as I've tried to work towards my dreams. I guess sometimes pursuing dreams means not giving up during splinter season because more humidity and a smoother path is bound to come one day.

Before and After Birks



Photo credit: Adventures Along the Way

It's winter and I've been thinking about ways to avoid the Season of Splinters in our little apartment. As you can see from the photo, the wood floor is rather worn. We kinda like the rustic look, but we do not like the huge splinters (over an inch long sometimes!) that we get during the dry winter season, which, to be honest, is closer to about half the year here in Québec.

This past weekend, I was reorganizing my shoes and looking for ones that need repairs. I ran across these shoes I got for cheap at the Birkenstock factory in Germany over 10 years ago. Clearly they have seen better days, and they could use some leather conditioning and re-gluing of the inside liner thing. The strap on the shoe on the right of the photo had broken a year or two ago, and I had tied it in a knot to hold it together.

But sitting there on my bedroom floor surrounded by shoes (and soon-to-be splinter territory), an idea struck. Voilà! New and improved indoor shoes! (Though they are not quiet enough to wear at night since we have downstairs neighbors, so it's probably not the final splinter solution. But for now, I am happy to have a no-splinters-in-the-daytime solution.)

Photo credit: Adventures Along the Way



An update of sorts.

• Earlier this summer I was fired up to write a post about how I was seeing a lot of rudeness in society these days. But....eh. I decided not to.
• This is partially because we escaped away from it all and spent a month in Australia. A month in Australia can do remarkable things, including reducing levels of annoyance.

Photo credit: S

Photo credit: S

• See? It does wonders.
• The jet lag I had after coming back was the worst I've ever had. It took me ten days to get back on our Canadian time zone. But hey, it was fun staying up to dawn again; it had been an unbelievably long time since I'd done that.

Booboo and More Shoes.

Photo credit: Adventures Along the Way

 When I came home and slipped off my sandals, Booboo made his move. He must prefer them "fresh."

Living Abroad (and Reflecting on Home)

I just read Chelsea Fagan's What Happens When You Live Abroad. Feeling inspired to write, I opened up a new post and quickly started to entitle it "Leaving Home." But then I stopped. What do I mean when I say "leaving home"? It surely isn't as simple as that for me. "Leaving One Physical Place for Another and Discovering Something New About Home" might be closer.

The other day my dad sent me a few emails with charts of our genealogical history going WAY back. Back to the "Old World." When I looked at the branches going back over several hundred years, it's clear that our roots are mostly in the general region of my home of origin. Basically my ancestors established themselves in one state and made their way to the neighboring state and stayed there. This is the state where I grew up, as did my parents and grandparents and others before them. Our family history is definitively there. But when I go back far enough, there is that one very distant ancestor who was born in England then died in the "New World." He is the one that changed the path of our family tree by leaving everything that was familiar to make a life in a new place.

And here I am, an immigrant in another country, with the realization that I have made a similar jump that impacts our family history. I feel a little like I betrayed my roots and The Sense of Place of my family.

Sassy red shoes (aka my wedding shoes).

Photo credit: Adventures Along the Way

Booboo is fond of my red wedding shoes. (Well, actually he gravitates to any of our shoes; he isn't picky.) When I saw Booboo there with the shoes I had kicked off when I got home from work the other day, I marveled over the fact that I wear my wedding shoes regularly...more than two-and-a-half years after the wedding! They're comfortable, surprisingly versatile, and make me feel confident and sassy. They weren't perfectly what I had envisioned wearing for the wedding, but they turned out better (and are probably more "me" than what I was unsuccessfully looking for at first). I love them and get to wear them whenever I want because they go with so much of my wardrobe. Plus I can actually walk in them without falling over.