Junk in my trunk

First garage-saling trip of the season: done and done.
Expenses: $4.00
returned with: car with less gas, four necklaces and a set of dominoes.
I actually do not know how to play dominoes (other than knocking them down) but my bro can teach me so good investment in learning say I. The necklaces are one pearl (fake but real looking and beige), a navy one with small glass beads, a green one with three strands and funkiness and a cheapy bead one in fun pink. Mostly I never pay more than $1 for a necklace but I grabbed two out of the 50 cent bin at this old people housing place and when I went to pay the woman claimed that one should have been in with the $2 jewels but I liked it and she was old and I didn't want to look like a jerk so I took it. I just can't argue with old people!

Anoche (last night) salio por el club (I went out to 'the club' or so it would be called here). It was actually the first time I have ever been into a bar while it was open in the Sault. I know, what a party animal! I had one drink before leaving the Moore's place. It was the Moore sisters' birthdays (not twins but one day apart) so I met them there and we all headed to Docks. I'll give them credit: if Docks was in Guelph it wouldn't tank. It was ok and I didn't really run into anyone awkward from high school. Check!

Maybe I'll name my (potential future hypothetical) daughter aubrey

Every year the Sault Star puts out a "Babies of the Year" for the previous year with photos and names of the recent additions to the local population. Usually there are a good number of Luigi's, Maria's and Anthony's studding the few pages of babies. There was actually many fewer than usual however, one little dude made up for it. His (rather unfortunate?) moniker Massimiliano Sicoli. How his dad convinced his mangiacake mother to use that one I will never understand.

A few other names that make me question the right that parents have to name their children were Dargus (yep, a little girl), Bishop (ok, i know this is a Catholic town, but those are high hopes, why not call him Cardinal? or Pope?), and the people who made it out of highschool before grade 10 literacy testing were little Kaylob and Alexxa's parents.

Something that speaks to the changing demographics of the north: there was a very cute little guy who wasn't white! It is officially the first time i've seen that i'm sure. Little master Bhatt son of Vipul. Times are a'changing.

For the Record

Better late than never I suppose. The soo officially has snow as of last night. Its about time. I thought I wasw guaranteed a white Christmas by living up here but nothing is for sure.

Leaving at 445am for TO, i still need some dark makeup and maybe a suitcase with wheels. Oh, and someone to be the guarantor for my passport. why do I wait until the last minute for everything?

Some things Don't Change Part II

Being back for the holidays I wasn't sure how many of my friends I would see.
Last night I went to tim horton's with Shawnna and Steph. When I lived in wawa Shawnna lived two streets behind me. We learned to bake gingerbread together, we called each other on Christmas morning to see what eachother received, we watched CMT religiously, we went through the Hanson phase together. I moved here and her family followed suit a year later: just one street over. She quickly started hanging out with me and my other two close friends Lori and Steph. At least once a week we would walk to the Tim Horton's on the corner and laugh and talk about everything going on.

Shawnna spent last year in Japan, I hadn't spoken to her in almost two years. Steph goes to Guelph but I think we have hung out once at school in the last three years. But, we met up at Timmies and it was like nothing had ever changed. I know its cliche but we just talked about everything going on in our lives, we bought candy and went back to Shawnna's and talked for a few more hours. It wasn't awkward or weird, it was like we were back in highschool. I am so luck to have friends like that.

Some things dont change

The greyhound arrived in the Soo at lunch on Tuesday from Guelph, having left at 1030 Monday night. Anyone continuing on to Vancouver will be arriving at 9:20pm Thursday evening. I wonder if the single mother with her new son was warmly welcomed by the new grandparents. She would have arrived this morning I think. It was surprising the number of young single mothers on this trip, they bonded easily with each other while waiting for the very late bus to return from a tune-up in Sudbury.

Now that i'm home there is so much to do. That will keep me busy but I plan to also spend some quality time reading. I have already finished half of Go Ask Alice. More for teen readers following an anonymous young girls diary from a good home to the streets of California running away from a drug addiction. It's sad, i should have chosen something more upbeat for my first book home but it is an easy two or three hour read.

I just returned from the Plummer Hospital, geniously situated right next to the General hospital. One city, two hospitals, right beside each other? More importantly that the brilliance of the location planners I spent a few hours visiting with my Nonno. It was a bit of a shock to walk into his room and see that his face wasn't the same. He had sunken cheeks and his nose was so thin, his whole face was so thin. I probably would have cried except that he cannot help telling jokes. He told me about the day my aunt Marsha was born, 38 years ago when men didn't go into the hospital room and he slept at the Diplomat hotel waiting for news. Too bad the man behind the reception desk fell asleep and didn't get the phone call to announce the birth of his 5th child. He apologized to his middle of 5 children for the five years he tormented him about his long, curly hippie hair. Three of his sisters visited him (he is the oldest of 8 children). One brushed his hair, another recounted how he had refused to sit in the hard hospital chair any longer because he was not suffering from ALL in fact, he was suffering from the A-S-S disease. The middle sister insisted on getting Nonno on her side about how spoiled the oldest sister had been in childhood. all over the age of 60 and still taunting each other!

One comfort was that when I held his hand it was the same. Nothing had changed that i could see. His gold wedding band a bit faded stuck over his finger on his hands that seem to be the only part of his body that hasn't been affected by the quick weightloss. I guess that means i am doomed to have chubby fingers forever, its genetic!

Warning: Do you really want to scroll down?

This is a blog that will represent where I come from.
Here are a series of pictures that were sent to me from
my cousin this week.
I will
write some
nonsense
right now
so that the pictures,
which are a little
gross for those
of you
with a
weak stomach
can decide if
you want
to keep
scrolling down the
page or not.
Hopefully,
this will
be sufficient.

Edit: After all that I forgot to say what it was. Its a dead moose hanging from ceiling of my uncles garage. It was so large the head had to come off so its sitting behind the moose carcass. Looks like jerky for me at Christmas!