THE GOODS BLOG: Erika's Precious Little Life - December Edition

I'm running a bit behind this month because I'm in the middle of doing a bit of a crazy thing... More on that later.

First to re-cap November... Enobong was still visiting Montreal at the beginning of the month. We were out walking around shopping one day when we ran into the Dumb and Dumber Mutts Cutts shaggin' wagon!!! It was pretty exciting. Apparently they made three of these vans for the filming of the new movie, and this was one of them. They let us get inside and everything! It was really nice having Enobong in town for a few days. She's my nearest close girlfriend now (since she lives in Ottawa)!

I took a solo trip to Toronto because a bunch of people from my junior high grade had organized a reunion and I didn't want to miss it! Especially now that I'm "over here" and can actually attend stuff like this again. Plus more time with my best Toronto ladies is always the best!

The reunion was held at a restaurant downtown. I went to junior high (grades 7 and 8) with these people in 1994-1996. I last saw many of them when I moved away to Regina in grade 10, but some of them had been longer.

Out of everyone, there was seven of us that first all started school together in grade 1, six years old, in 1988! Pretty crazy to be together again with people I've known for that long! In some ways, it was almost like no time had passed at all.

We finally got around to celebrating Tim's birthday, just he and I. We went to a super yummy restaurant called L'Gros Luxe that is a block away from our house and I gave him some presents. Tim has officially been birthday'd!

Then we were off to Ottawa! My sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Angela and Greg, live there and they are expecting a baby as you know. So it was Baby Shower time!! Tim and I stayed at Enobong's place and we got to meet the new man that she is seeing! His name is Ian and he seems like a great match for her!

The Baby Shower was held at Angela and Greg's house and it was co-ed. It was a nice time with family, we got to give them gifts (a Baby Bullet, obvs), and we are generally super excited about our FIRST niece or nephew!!!

Before leaving Ottawa we were sure to pay a visit to the National War Memorial and Parliament Hill. After everything that had happened there and because it had recently been Remembrance Day we definitely wanted to pay our respects. I felt like a very proud Canadian.

I went for my first job interview in eight years! I had dropped off a few resumes to stores that I really like (DAVIDsTEA, Anthropologie, Desigual, Brandy Melville) in hopes of getting a little part time retail gig. Just something to get me out of the house and to make a bit of extra money. It took a while, but I finally got a call from Desigual, easily one of my most favourite stores in the world. So I went for the interview and hit it off with the manager right away. He said that he isn't even looking for anyone right now, but that he was so impressed by my resume that he had to meet me. He said that I'm the perfect fit for the store and that he wanted to hire me on the spot! Unfortunately, I had to tell him about my two weeks away at Christmas, and predictably this was a problem. I asked if he would consider hiring me in January instead, and he said yes. So it sounds like I have a job at Desigual waiting for me after the holidays, as long as nothing weird happens.

Tim's latest video game was released! Dragon Age: Inquisition. This is the 5th game of Tim's career and it has been getting rave reviews! I'm really glad that the feedback is so positive after all of the hard work and long hours that Tim had put into the game.

We had some visitors from Edmonton and Toronto! Our friends Joy and Josh from Edmonton (you'll all remember Joy from when I hated her, ha ha) and Sam and Sarah from Toronto came to Montreal with two other friends of theirs. They didn't stay with us, but we got to have a few nice hangouts with them. *ALSO, of the 4 women in the below photo, Tim has made out with 3 of them. Yep. That's my husband.

We put up our Christmas tree! This is the first year ever that I've had a REAL tree at my house. I really like it and I don't think that I could go back to a fake one. It just smells too amazing! Now that the tree is up the whole Christmas season feels a lot more real.

So now onto the crazy thing that I'm doing right now... I signed up to participate in a clinical trial. I'm not sure why these sorts of things fascinate and excite me, but they do. It's kind of similar to how I love jury duty (if being a professional juror was a job, I would be that!!). I had to go through a bunch of screenings in order to get selected for the trial, but I did get chosen. For two nights this week (last night and tonight) and two nights next week I have to stay at their clinic. It's kind of like a hostel. I am helping test an anti-nausea medication and they are taking my blood to test how much medication has gotten into my system. Not only do I find this super interesting and fun, it's also like a fun mini pajama vacation! I was most excited about eating the food that they were going to serve me! ...And also I'm getting paid $1,150 which is pretty helpful right before Christmas. So yep, I'm sitting in this place right now... And I know that I'm odd for being into this sort of thing.

As for the rest of December, I'm super excited about the Puces POP fair coming up, similar to Edmonton's Royal Bison.

Tim and I are going to have our own little Christmas at home to exchange gifts with each other before we leave...

And then we're off to Regina on the 18th! We'll be there for Christmas with my family and I really hope to see whoever of you will be around!! My family already has a ton of stuff planned, but I'm there for an entire week, so I have plenty of hangout time as well. I'm thinking of going to see Library Voices play at O'Hanlon's while there! And to go to yoga classes at Bodhi Tree!

On the 26th we leave for London, Ontario to be with the Golems for New Years and bonus Christmas. We have another week there with them.

So it's the end of yet another year. It seems like they all fly by so quickly! This year has been very different for me and I'm not sure how I would have done it without all of you in my corner, backing me up. Even if you don't realize it, just knowing that I have SUCH incredible friends out there made moving to a new place so much easier. You are all proof that no matter where I go, I am extremely fortunate to have a whole team of freakin' AMAZING, strong, wonderful and inspirational women behind me. Knowing that you're out there has meant everything to me. I cannot thank each and every one of you enough for being the exact incredible person that you are.