The 142nd Canada Day

It was a wonderful day, and the full slide show is at the end of this post.

8:40am and I missed my bus. I normally wouldn't even be awake this early. I ended up walking almost 40 minutes to get to St. Laurent, which was closed. To get to the lower level of the bus station, I joined a group of people in venturing into the upper level construction zone, and then climbing over a large barrier at the bottom of the staircase, jumping down to the lower level. We were so adventurous!

I finally got to Rideau Centre [only ten minutes late, considering I had walked a great distance rather than the quick and easy bus. I met Darryl and Mando, and we walked up to Parliament Hill, where I guess they were a bit slow because even though we were late, we were still on time to hear the anthem and see the Canadian flag raise. They said it would be at half mast due to the death of former Governor General Romeo Leblanc, but that was a lie. We couldn't see the changing of the guard or the musical ride, so we decided to head off. We took a large detour since not many gates were open, and eventually headed down to the Rideau Canal locks, where we sat around watching the boats go through, while Darryl threw ants into the water because he's evil.

Next, we decided to search for some lunch. Of course, we started looking for a sausage guy after 10 feet after we passed the last sausage cart, so we toured around the market and none were found. We climbed up to Major's Hill Park and eventually grabbed some pizza, which we ate on the lawn. It was delicious. While we ate, the Snowbirds did their flyover which was pretty sweet, because I don't think I've ever seen them before.

I grabbed a lemonade from the big lemon, and we headed off across the Alexandria Bridge into Gatineau. We did the tour of the Museum of Civilization. It was great as a child, but it was a bit boring. Its an older museum, so it doesn't have all the awesomeness and interactive things that I require for a museum to capture my attention while attempting to educate me. We took a few hours, and then went outside and hung out along the river, looking back at Ottawa. Mando and I had Slush Puppies. Delicious! There were about ten drops of rain, which concluded the predicted day of thunderstorms. Thanks mother nature! :)

We walked back across the bridge and finally got the sausages we were looking for, just outside the National Art Gallery. We ate them in a square of shade provided by a sign. We watched a minor fight, some guys peeing in a bush, and then some children crawling where the guys peed. Good times.

We headed back to the Hill just in time for the start of the evening concert. Mando chose to go home, because she didn't want to stand for a couple hours through crappy music [that's what she thinks!]. Darryl and I started back by the Centennial Flame, and slowly moved up as the night went on, to end up near the TV infrastructure. So maybe 30 rows back from the stage? There were some good acts, such as Les Respectables and Sarah McLaughlin. When it was all over, the fireworks began. They were pretty much the same as last year, but who doesn't love fireworks?

It quite a long time for the ~100,000 people to leave Parliament Hill, in a slow but steady flow of people onto Wellington/Rideau St. and then dispersing into the rest of downtown. The buses were set up stupidly though. Instead of using the spacious transit hub of Mackenzie King, everyone was shoved off to the very cramped and incredibly overcrowded Laurier stop. Buses would arrive with no number, and then a guy would tell them what route they would be. As soon as the route number flicked onto the bus sign, a mosh pit of people would trying forcing their way onto the bus. At some points, there was much shoving and even some bus windows being broken. Bad people. They should be ashamed.

Since my route isn't so popular, it took about 90 minutes to finally arrive. It was a long bus. I was one of 5 people on it. No ultra-crammed bus for me LOL. I got home at 12:30am with sore feet that walked about 14km, plus hours of standing. It was a good day!

The Supermodelquins

As of approximately 11:23am, I will be joining the ranks of these awesome plastic people. I've finally ended my lengthy job search, at Old Navy!

I never really wanted to do retail, but it seems that the people there are great fun, and the discounts for Old Navy, Gap and Banana Republic are awesome. And there are supermodelquins! And the hours will fit my future schedule.

So my interview was at 11. I had time to call Darryl and Momma [it was her last day of work today, before she moves up to her awesome new job] and I ate some Subway. At 12, I was back to the store to meet 4 other newbies [who were NOT hired just minutes before], and we did 4 hours of orientation. Good times.

So there we have it. Months of job searching done. I look forward to money, and discounted clothes.

The Hot Air

The weather here has been so freaking ridiculous lately. Its its not ultra hot, its raining. Those are the options, and they suck.

Last week, some hot air balloons decided to come on over to say hello.



This weekend was Darryl's nephew's 6th birthday, so we spent the day with the family. It was fun... they're nice. And hilarious. Sadly, we went to see Transformers 2, which I was totally excited for it.

Transformers 2 is the worst movie ever made.

The rest of the weekend was just spent watching season 5 of Lost, and general hanging out. Nothing too crazy.

This week I have two job interviews, which is really nice. Wednesday is Canada Day, so I'm hoping the proposed week of rain decides to clear up for that day. And hopefully I'll get to see Quatchi again since the Olympics will be heavily promoted! I need a picture of him and I in the summer, to add to the one of us in the winter! LOL

The Flashbacks: 1994

Remember 1994? It was the International Year of the Family AND the International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal. Good then that I've got some hockey and family pictures for you. Apparently, 1994 was a short year. Enjoy!

I moved on up to Junior Novice, leaving the Bumblebees behind for Kevin's Welding and Iron Works. Oddly enough, the jersey represented a bumblebee more than the jersey i wore while I was a Bumblebee. I'm front row, far left.

Look how cute I was. My dad even used orange tape on my socks, to sort of match the uniform. LOL

We headed on down to Detroit to visit some relatives, including my great aunt Anne. This first visit was to her beautiful huge home in Grosse Pointe [her kids also live there in their beautiful huge homes]. The second time, she was in a beautiful huge old age home. The third, she was in a coffin. It was beautiful and regulation size [I recall it was blue]. She was a great lady.

Back to Ontario, to Renfrew's booming suburbs: Cotieville. Here I am at Grandma's with my cousin Lisa. I'm missing one teeth, she's apparently missing the whole set.

Grade 2 featured this radical class picture, in which they were too lazy to make us all line up. I'm in the middle, flanked by the mushroom cuts of Rebecca C and David. Mando is the first girl in the top row [non-teacher] and Natalie is rockin' a sweet side-pony.

What's this? my hands on an atlas? My destiny as a geographer begins here. Or possibly it began with all those trips I took before this point.

The Tattoo

I am totally using this image that Mando told me about as a ploy to get you to read another post of mine, and also to post something before I end up with THREE Flashbacks in a row. Sorry this week was slow.

I have an interview next Friday. That's good. Please wish me luck!

And now, the sadness. Both sadness of this tattoo, and what it represents. Have a good weekend, all!