THE GOODS BLOG: Erika's Precious Little Life - February Edition
Updated: Jun 18, 2021
This past month has been, without a doubt, the strangest time of my life.
I don't feel as if I have any idea what "normal" is anymore.
To re-cap...
Upon returning to Edmonton from Regina after the holidays, we promptly got straight in the car and drove to the mountains. We wanted to have one final Rocky Mountain snowboarding trip before moving away, and we took an entire week to do so. Our first stop was Jasper - our hometown mountain and clearly an extremely special place to us in general (more than ever after getting married there).
We snowboarded at Marmot Basin, and this was our first time out on the mountain this season - this is also the beginning of my SIXTH snowboarding season. Time has been flying! We also visited Maligne Lookout, of course, the spot where we got married. It was so weird to be there six months later and to see the whole place covered in snow. I imagined everyone being there with us on that hot and sunny day. Most perfect best day ever, straight out of my dreams.
We then drove down to Golden, BC by taking the Icefields Parkway which is something that we'd never done before and have always wanted to do. It was beautiful.
We snowboarded at Kicking Horse, our favourite mountain of all, and we also stayed at Winston Lodge, which is basically our favourite place to stay ever. Tim took me out to dinner for my birthday a bit early since my actual birthday was going to be a bit crazy. We went up to Eagle's Eye, which is the most elevated restaurant in Canada, and we had an amazing dinner. For my birthday present Tim had a ring custom made for me. When we were on our honeymoon in French Polynesia we bought a Tahitian black pearl with the intention of having it made into a ring for me, but I had no idea that Tim had gone ahead and done it. The ring is white gold and there's a small diamond in it also. I love it so much and love having something that will always symbolize my dream honeymoon on my hand.
Remember how I had wanted to have sex with Tim in his office during/after his work Christmas party and how it didn't work out? (See last month's blog.) Well how about this instead? On the gondola ride back down the mountain from dinner, in the dark! HA HA!
Our last stop on our mountain tour was Banff. Unfortunately I started to feel pretty sick with a cold when we got there. (Tim caught this cold from me a few days later, and it hit him much harder than it hit me.)
Because of feeling sick I decided to forgo the plan to go snowboarding at Sunshine Village, another of our favourite places. I was disappointed to miss out, but glad that Tim still went without me. I spent the day reading, drinking tea, went to a drop-in yoga class, and then went for a massage... So not a bad day in exchange!
We then went back home to Edmonton, in time to begin THE MOVE.
The movers came and spent one entire day packing everything. Then they came the next day (my birthday; 32!) to load everything into the truck and begin the journey. They also took our car away on this day since it was being shipped also. I was very sad to say goodbye to our apartment. The three years living there went by way too fast, and it was by far my most favourite apartment that I'd ever lived in. That place is forever in my heart! (I honestly never had any desire to buy a place in Edmonton because I loved this apartment way too much.)
We were given a rental car and put in a hotel for this last night in Edmonton. And since it was my birthday AND our last night in town, it seemed like the perfect time to throw a farewell birthday party! We decided to have it at Pampa, which is a Brazilian steakhouse, because in our opinion it's the best beef in the city. And who wouldn't want to enjoy the best beef on their last night in Alberta?? I couldn't have asked for a better night with my best friends and our most amazing Edmonton people. I was so touched and I love everyone with every inch of my heart. Thank you for being there for me when I needed you the most - right when I was about to do something fucking scary! ;)
The next day, we were off.
We flew to Montreal, which was a bit stressful because we were worried about our animals and whether or not they were okay. The cat came on our flights with us, but she was down in cargo, so we couldn't see her. The ferret and sugar glider weren't allowed to come with us at all, and had to be shipped through special cargo and took different flights than we did completely. They even spent the night in Toronto and only arrived in Montreal the next day! Thankfully all three animals arrived totally fine!!! We were given another rental car and spent our first night in a hotel. Then we moved to the temporary furnished corporate apartment that we were allowed to live in for up to a month. This apartment was located right downtown and it was pretty awesome to be on the 29th floor with a beautiful view.
We planned that our first meal in Montreal would be at Schwartz's, for the most legendary Montreal smoked meat!
We got possession of our house on January 15th. I call it a "house" because I don't really have the right word to describe it. It's not really like a "condo," it's more like a triplex. The iconic, super old brownstone kind. (Ours is 103 years old.) Upon getting the keys, we went straight to our new home and popped a cork on a bottle of champagne! Our first home that we bought!
When we first got to Montreal the weather was really mild, which made it very easy to get out and explore downtown and it was exciting and easy to feel like I was starting to get to know my new life.
But then it got VERY cold. I would be the first person to say "people in the east are a bunch of babies, we get -50 in the west!" But I have to say that when it's very cold here, it's terrible and miserable, and it feels colder than the west. So because of that I ended up stuck indoors a lot, sometimes for days at a time, which started to get depressing. There wasn't very much that I could do about it. We painted the living room in our place, and about two weeks after arriving in town, our furniture and everything arrived. The movers spent one day unloading the truck and putting everything inside, and the next day they came back and unpacked everything. But they didn't know where everything was supposed to go (and frankly neither did we) so we just ended up with EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE. This was a bit of a nightmare. We would try to work on a different room every day, but it was very easy to get fed up and overwhelmed and to just run back to the nice, tidy, comfortable corporate apartment. Soon our own car arrived as well. Tim even ended up having to go to Vancouver on business all of a sudden.
Once we got our place into SOMEWHAT of a livable state, we knew that we needed to move in officially. Being in our place 24/7 is the only way that we'll actually be able to spend enough time getting everything sorted out, organized and put away. So we moved in yesterday! Tim even carried me across the threshold, now that we've moved in for realsies. ;)
So now my main focus is to finally get this place done. It's really the only thing that I need to do. But it's coming along!
A little bit about where we live, the neighbourhood is called Mile End. "Mile End is a stylish, yet casual Montréal neighborhood. This is a district where people live together in harmony: Greek immigrants, Hasidic Jews and artsy hipsters coexist in one neighborly mélange of harmonious potential. Spin, Pitchfork and The New York Times have all gushed about Mile End as the hotbed of Montréal indie music, cultural diversity and all things cool. In this ‘hood you’ll find relaxed cafés, designer boutiques, inspiring art, video game developers and arguably the best darn bagels in the world. It is unanimously accepted that Mile End is Montréal’s hippest neighborhood."
So... This sounded about right for us! We really wanted to stay in an area as much similar to Old Strathcona as possible. We could have gotten a big house in the suburbs... But that just isn't our style. Not yet, anyway. Maybe never.
Also, many of you have asked about my phone number. No, I have not yet changed it. I do intend to, but there isn't any negative impact to keeping the same number for right now. Do not worry, as soon as I do change it you guys will be the first to know!!!
I'm relieved to finally be living in OUR neighbourhood, because I'd much rather be using my time to get to know where I actually live, instead of going back downtown where I don't live. So now I'll just be working on the house! And making it into our home!
But that's not all for February.
I'm going to be coming to Regina for about a week! My high school friend Dave is getting married (February 15th), and I will be in attendance! Tim is not coming with me, since he has a lot going on with work, especially since he just started. We haven't actually booked my flight yet though, so I still don't know the exact dates of when I'll be there. But I will let you Regina peeps know so that we can get together! And I'll definitely see many of you at the wedding as well. :)
February 19th will be me and Tim's six year anniversary of when we met. I hope that he has something nice planned for when I get back from Regina, especially since I'll be away over Valentine's Day too. ;)
Concerts shall not die! We're going to be seeing Chicago (the band, not the musical) and Basia Bulat this month!
So THAT was the whole moving tale. If you need me I'll be dealing with the tornado wreckage in my house. And eating a lot.
THIS MONTH'S SHOUT OUTS!:
February 9th is Laura Young's 28th birthday!
Laura, I have been thinking of you SO MUCH lately!!! I hope that you are having the most wonderful pregnancy and that you are feeling great! I'm sure that you look like the most gorgeous preggo gal! I hope that you enjoy your extra special pregnant birthday and that Matt has been taking extra good care of you. I miss you so much and love you so much. We need to talk soon because I'm dying to hear about how everything is going!!! (Did you find out if it's a girl or a boy?!)
February 18th is Candice Weingartner's 2nd wedding anniversary!
Wishing you and Ryan a wonderful anniversary, and remembering how much fun we had in Saskatoon celebrating with you on your wedding day! It was the most gorgeous winter wedding!!
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