an update is desperately needed.

I don't even know what all I haven't blogged about...

Visit with Laura

I stayed with Laura (of the J&L variety) in Borden a couple weekends ago. What an adventure to get to (and evidently, from) her place...

I got to the bus station in ample time to buy my ticket and eat my supper that I had packed-no eating out for me! Little did I know JUST how much time I would have. My bus didn't show. Also, the Greyhound bus-ticket guy didn't tell us that our bus didn't come-so a few of us went to inquire. (enquire?) The nice Greyhound bus-ticket guy told us "don't worry, you can just take the GO bus (totally different company), it's leaving in... 1 minute. So we all ran over to catch the bus and the driver looks at us (understandably) and says "I can't take those tickets, this is a GO bus, those are Greyhound tickets" (as if we were idiots). We all feel pretty stupid, and then the Greyhound bus-ticket guy comes out and says "no, no, it's okay-we do this all the time" (odd ... why are there 2 companies then??). Needless to say the GO bus driver wouldn't let the 5 of us on. So we dragged ourselves back inside and started talking ... one guy was on his way back to TO to visit his g/f, a country boy was going up north to see (meet?) a girl, an older native man was on his way home, a guitar-toting plumber (or was it electrician?) was going back to Ottawa after finishing a course at Mohawk and me.

While we were waiting I called Kyle (of the LeaKer variety) to get Laura's phone #, since her cell had changed since she moved. I called Laura to say that my bus didn't show, I wouldn't make my transfer and I would be into Barrie 3 hours late-at 1 am.  Only, she wasn't around and so I left her a message.

The next GO bus driver let us get on and we all arrived in TO and the 4 of us complete strangers that needed to get to the Greyhound station piled in a taxi. It was about a 20 minute walk, it was freezing cold-and there was an option of a taxi.  In all the transferring I didn't end up even paying my portion of the cab, thanks to the guitar-toting trades-guy.

I walked, kind of dejected, into the Greyhound station and quickly discovered that my (original) bus-the one that was to get me to Barrie at 10 pm, instead of 1 am, hadn't left yet. I ran outside to the terminal. In fact, it hadn't even arrived yet. So again, I stood outside in the cold and thought about all the craziness and how much easier life would be if only I had a car (more expensive, yes-but easier).

Alas, the bus finally showed up and we were on our way. Only trouble was, in addition to not having a car, I don't have a cell phone. So when I finally got to Barrie I had to find a payphone, dial the number and realize that Borden is long distance and so I had to get more change-THREE DOLLARS worth, call Laura and then sit. Finally the weekend was about to start.

Did I mention I was awake at about 5:45 that morning?

All this to say, we had a really great weekend together. We stayed up and talked on Friday night, went for a walk on Saturday to the tanks (Borden is a military base), came home and pretty much barricaded ourselves in the house for the rest of the day. We had fun playing Wii, dutch blitz, cooking, watching Boy Meets World & Big Fish and just relaxing-doing what best friends do best, hanging out.

On Sunday, after shopping of course, it was time to come home and the travelling adventures weren't over... I had to transfer in two cities I didn't know and lost my ticket before the first one! Thankfully I found it in the muck on the bus floor before I got off. Everything else went pretty smooth-I made it home and LeaKer picked me up from the bus station and we hung out at his parents' place until late when I was ready for bed.

Why didn't I blog about this adventure before?! :)

Visit with Darrell

This was soooo much fun. I took three days holidays and spent time with a friend I haven't seen in about 5 years.

On Friday I got a ride to the airport and picked Darrell up and we adventured in TO for the morning, early afternoon ... made our way back to Hamilton and finally ended up at the LeaKer's, after a number of modes of transportation. Plane for Darrell and car + train for me, shuttle bus to Kipling Stn., subway across the city, by foot around the city, GO bus back to Hamilton and 3 HSR buses to the LeaKer's, with a stop at the college.  That night after supper we went to Niagara Falls which was one massive ice skating rink-the mist + no salting = many laughs.  When we finally made it back to the car we went out for dinner to Boston Pizza and eventually made it back to Hamilton at about 2:30 am.  I had been up for 22 hours, beaten only by Darrell who was up for 23 hours.

That was Friday.

Saturday was much more subdued, we didn't get together until afternoon and it's because I bribed the guys with cookies... they picked me up and we hung out for a couple hours until Darrell went to visit with a couple friends from CBC (one of whom also lives in Calgary and just happened to be visiting the same friend, the same weekend-smaaaaall world).

Sunday was again a very busy day, with the morning service + hanging out at Cindy's + the Alternative service. On Sunday and Monday night I slept at the LeaKer's to make it easier for Darrell and I to get together without much bussing or bothering people for rides.

Monday Darrell and I adventured through Westdale and downtown Hamilton and then spent the evening just hanging out. We finally did what we had committed to doing a few years ago-drinking slurpees. We always said that whenever Darrell came to visit Hamilton, even if it was in the middle of winter, we would have slurpees-preferably Dr. Pepper.  Mr. LeaKer took us to the only 7-Eleven we could find, which wasn't even where the map said it would be and they had Dr. Pepper slurpees. It was a good evening, followed with a movie and looking at many pictures and video clips and a late bedtime of about 2 am.

On Tuesday it was time to say goodbye...so now Darrell is busy driving across Canada visiting other friends and I am back at work.

Other Random Notes of Interest

I applied for my Swiss passport

My co-workers REALLY missed me while on holidays

Kandy (my nephew's mother) accepted Christ!! (that totally should have been top of the list)

I bought 10 picture frames for $19.99

Watched Born Into Brothels with Lauren

Had a Sanctuary photoshoot (posted pictures a week ago) with some of my favourites

Experienced God's love in some really awesome ways

Seen more snow than I care... although nothing quite like this:

I'm done blogging now. If I've missed some really awesome event in the last couple weeks, I do apologize-so much has been rattling around in my brain for quite some time.  Including that spider I should've killed yesterday in my bedroom and he could now be just about anywhere...ugh!