Trip Highlights

In Quebec City we wandered cobbled streets

Admired centuries of history

Dined at an authentic Italian restaurant

Where a French waiter and two significantly Anglo Ontarians tried to find common ground

Stayed at a hotel on a lake that we never had time to see

And picnicked on cheese and baguette while the Vinyl Café played on the radio

 

In New Brunswick we hopped into inner tubes

Strapped to one another, and also to our cooler

We cracked a cold beer as our feet dangled in the cold river

And floated peacefully down the Miramichi

I definitely crashed into the trees hanging over the riverbank at one point

And we laughed

 

On the south shore of New Brunswick we walked on the ocean floor

The tide was out, the tourists were in

And the Hopewell Rocks were as towering and majestic as anything had ever been

Cinched at the waist, busty ladies in corsets gathered together

100 feet over the rest of us, looking down

Eroded by the endless ocean

Hugged by bubble wrap seaweed, floating and clinging then squinting against the bright sun

Until the tide returned

 

We ate salmon in Miramichi

Lobster in Shediac (Acadian style, of course!)

We dined on mussels, clam chowder and more lobster in New Glasgow, PEI

We savoured Digby scallops on Digby neck – warmed on a toasted hot dog bun, somehow the greatest meal I have ever tasted

Lobster rolls and scallop encores in Lunenburg

1.5 lbs of lobster and fresh salmon near Peggy’s Cove

Oysters, lobster and haddock in Halifax

Deep fried everything in Antigonish – the ocean floor in a fryer, then on our plates

Steamed clams (steamed hams?) fresh from the ocean in Portland, Maine

And $1/piece oysters for Jeff

On my to do list: getting fresh seafood shipped to Ontario for minimal cost… (suggestions welcome!)

 

On PEI we clapped, sang and stomped at a ceilidh

Fiddlers fiddled, step dancers stepped, trumpets blared

Jokes flowed

Songs sung – from the beloved Stompin’ Tom, to Mike the ceilidh guy’s “ol’ belly rubber” which made this big weenie cry

Bald eagles flew overhead nonchalantly

Herons clustered together in flocks

Where were we!?

 

Lighthouses, lighthouses, lighthouses

From gorgeous, to run down, to ugly, to lonely, to majestic

From red, to white, to black

Beacons on every point

Everywhere

(Lighthousemoon?)

 

Whale watching off Digby Neck

The humpback whale barrel roll

Fins of minkes all around

Brilliant sun 1, pervasive fog 0

Did I mention the scallop rolls?

 

Touring the west coast and the Acadian villages

Blue, red, white flags, yellow star

Pride in history, unchanging for centuries

Views of the ocean

“I could live here”

 

Lunenburg, so colourful, so quaint, so adorable

The perfect fishing town

Tall colourful architecture here, the Bluenose II over there

And a harbour full of sailboats under a shining sun

The bluest water I have ever seen

 

Peggy’s Cove

Pink granite, blue water, shining sky

Lighthouse perfection

Clambering on rocks, waves crashing all around

Feeling so unbelievably at home

 

Halifax.  Waterfront.  Could have set up a shop and moved right onto the boardwalk, never leaving

Or could have stayed a year at the Keith’s brewery where folks in period costumes danced and sung

Could have spent every night for the rest of my life listening to Signal Hill at the Lower Deck, while the good beer flowed

Could have stayed there and never left, I’m sure of it (NCC Atlantic, are you hiring?)

 

Laying on a beach

This was worth not taking the long route

To find this time to relax

The coldest, saltiest water

Nothing more refreshing

The warm, reddish sand

Quiet, reading, relaxing

“We need to find time to do more of THIS” says Jeff

 

Cape Breton

My history, my blood

The Cabot Trail and the most beautiful vistas in the world

Winding on a road up a mountain

While the sea opened up below

Climbing further and further up

Green hills that went on forever

Fiddle music pulsing in my veins

 

Time with Jeff

A commodity there just isn’t always enough of

Two weeks, 7,500 kms, countless stops, always on the move

Coming, going

Cabins with salamander guests, hotel rooms in 4 provinces and 1 state

Feeling at home the entire time, because my home was right beside me, driving the car and smiling at me

 

A wonderful. Spectacular. Unforgettable. Exhausting. Brilliant two weeks.

Canada’s east coast - perfection

Summer Hijinx are the Hijinxiest of All

Field season is at the "ready to kill ya" point which explains my absence over the past little while.  But I'm bursting with stupid stories, and just had to make a point to make some time tonight to post.  Between the stupid, the awesome and the terrible, I'll try to paint an adequate picture of the past couple of months in not more than a couple paragraphs! (ha, brevity, never my strong point..)

I had the roughest go I've had at work since I started my job nearly six years ago, which did a pretty decent job at sucking my thoughts into a spiralling crazylady vortex for most of May and June.  When it comes to just me, gettin' my work done, doin' my thing, meeting my deadlines, I'm bang on. That is when I flourish.  When you add people to the mix it always makes things trickier.. especially when you add ones who detest you, don't respect you, lie about you (um, yup, that's all one person), I get thrown totally off kilter.  Dealing with people, especially when their motives toward you are.. using synonym feature to find right word.. "sinister" too harsh.. let's just say "untoward"... can really do a number on your head, making you question yourself and your decisions.  The good news is I kept treading water with the help of my wonderful friends and family who are so supportive and I am so grateful for every day; I kept my head above the proverbial water, murky as it was, and I made it out of the deep end and have climbed out of the cesspool.  I am moving on from that toxic swimming pool and doing everything I can to put it behind me.  Like an angry fire-breathing whack-a-mole, I'm sure this person will pop up again in my life, but hopefully I'll be in a better position to breathe in, breathe out, shake my head and laugh a little, and continue moving forward.

My allergies have been pretty redonculous this season; not sure about the rest of you grass pollen allergy sufferers, but I really think this has been one of the worst years for pollen allergies on the record.  I knew it was bad.  Then I decided to walk through a field of 5'5" tall grass.  I know exactly how tall it was because it was hitting me in the eyes and mouth as I walked.  If I'd put on my rubber boots I could have walked on the submerged trail, but I hate having wet feet for the drive home and was only in hikers, so I thought dry feet + field of grass sounded like a much better idea.  I started sneezing.. 3 sneezes (usually I just pull out a double). Then 5-6 sneezes.  When I was at one point bent over letting out a chorus of 12 consecutive sneezes and my face subsequently exploded, I decided I probably shouldn't continue to blaze my way down the grass path.  As I reached my car on the return journey I noticed it felt like I had something in my throat - grass seed?  Not sure.  Ouch.  Itchy.  Can't tell.  Cough cough.. ouch.  What the heck.  Deep breath.. having trouble breathing.. Oh, I see, it's just my throat closing up.  Nice.  That was a terrifying 15 minutes as I drove in a panic along Hwy 90 practicing breathing and painfully coughing.  Luckily after blasting AC at my face for the 1.5 hr drive home, I was in decent condition, and promptly made an apt with an allergist.  Hopefully 2013 will be my last year of face explosions: tbd!


View from Sneezefest 2013 - at least it was worth it!

I went out to spray Dog-strangling Vine, my favourite nemesis, for a week at the end of June.  I led a team of 8-9 people each day and we did a serious number on this plant, helping to keep it off some very important habitat - ya us!  I only gave one person heat exhaustion, 2 people funny foot rashes from wearing rubber boots in 35C heat (nope, it can NEVER be a reasonable temperature when I'm spraying) and maybe ended up with a team of 5 down from 9 on Day 4.. but we persevered!  To celebrate near the end of Day 4 (final spray day), I looked over at one of the team members who was fiddling with the straps on her backpack sprayer while holding the spray trigger on the nozzle and was promptly greeted with a face full of Roundup.  Watching it come towards me in a blue, slow motion arc through the air was something else!  It smacked me in the forehead, eye and cheek on the right side of my face and I looked at one of our other interns, who was panic stricken.  "Do you want paper towel?!!?  LET'S GET YOU SOME PAPER TOWEL!".  I replied "I need you to get the handwash water and wash out my eye right now."  I sort of fell to my knees while she started pouring clean water in my eye and across my face.  At that point, there wasn't much else to do but laugh and her controlled freak out was kind of hilarious.  So I started laughing as she poured, which made it sound like I was choking on the water that was pouring on my face.  An intern who had been around the front of the van came to the back to see what the commotion was about and could only utter: "Laura, why are you waterboarding Kristyn?!?!"  Which made me laugh harder, which is when another intern showed up and thought to himself: "Laura is doing a really bad job at giving Kristyn a drink of water from that jug...".  Which he later shared, which made me waterboard laugh again later.  We spent the rest of the day retelling that story and laughing until our stomachs hurt.  Just after that I went to call my parents to tell them the funny story and apparently can't handle holding two phones and a beer, as I poured the beer all over my shirt, my pillow and the bed I was to sleep in that night.  Ahh. The perfect end to a dreamy week ;)



Badass 2013 Spray Team

Last weekend I headed to Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH.  This is our annual trip of roller coaster awesomeness that we missed in 2012 and I have since vowed NEVER to miss a year again.  I missed it so much I'd find myself staring misty-eyed into the distance thinking about the twists and turns of Maverick (two launch starts, a drop that's greater than 90 degrees - yup picture it, like a backwards "S" (ride that S from the right), a two minutes of crazy barrel rolls and thrills), the fastest you'll EVER accelerate and probably EVER go from 0mph - 120mph on Top Thrill Dragster, and the 300 foot sheer drop on Millennium Force, then catching air on hills overlooking Lake Erie.  Basically, the happiest place on earth.  Somehow it's never really rained on us before.   A bit during our trip in 2007, but never REALLY rained.  We had a great morning in the hot hot sun, rode all the goodies and were planning our next moves when we saw the sky getting a bit funny.  We made it right to the front of the line for Magnum XL and then were told the ride was shutting down due to incoming weather.  Ok, time for a beer!  Then in line for Maverick for an hour and a half waiting for it to run again, which it just does not do in the rain because of the launches.  Ok, let's head to dinner!  We got sprinkled on on the way to dinner, and when Viv and I felt the subzero AC temperature of the restaurant we made the executive decision to walk the 7 minutes to and from the car to get some dry long sleeved shirts to change into.  We didn't want to get chilled then be cold all night.  Nice plan ladies.. instead we got SOAKED in the storm that would eventually flood Toronto that day.  We were soaked RIGHT THROUGH.  Right through.  At one point there was nothing to do but laugh.  Or maybe I said "this will be one of those things we think back on and laugh about" :P  When we showed up back at the restaurant looking like two drowned rats, Jay and Jeff (warm and drinking their beers inside) just sort of stared at us in feel sorry for you/kind of funny/oh my disbelief.  The restaurant folks who gave us towels to go towel ourselves down in the bathroom were very nice.  We drank some tea to warm up, changed into the dry shirts (thank goodness for plastic bags) and made it through the rest of the evening no problem, even though we were extremely wet from butt to feet!  Anyone interested in riding the best rides of your life, plan to be IN for Cedar Point 2014 - all welcome! (sidenote: Viv and Jeff laughed like maniacs for their first time over the 420' off the ground arc of Top Thrill Dragster - there is nothing like your first time!)

Millennium Force - pic from the line.  That's a HUGE bitch!



Top Thrill Dragster against the sunset (photo by Jay).
420 feet of magic straight up and down.  Vroom.. VROOM......

Sidenote: our campsite for the weekend was under big shady trees, so typically that would be "dirt".  For this particular weekend post all the summer rain, it was "mud".  Mud which we a) skated in b) slid in c) dropped steak AND vegetables in.  Mud which I refused to brave at 4 a.m. when the rain was pouring buckets onto our tent.  You know you have a good husband when he agrees you shouldn't go out there, hands you an empty Powerade bottle and goes back to sleep.  A saint, my Jeff!  Not my finest moment THAT'S FOR SURE.  I hope that very embarrassing factoid at least made somebody laugh - if so, it was worth it.

Bailey has started swimming, which is very fun and cute and probably very useful for a dog wearing a black fur coat in 30C+ weather.  It's been great taking him to the dogpark so he can cool down and fetch sticks - he's a great swimmer!  Yesterday morning while hiking with Bailey, my mom, Ziggy and my mom's friend Art and his two dogs, Bailey got lost - in Stouffville, in a giant forest, quite far from home, somewhere he's never been.  We called and called for a good 5 minutes before he finally came back - completely out of breath, soaked from head to toe and looking a little panicked.  We'll never know what happened.  I'd like to put a GPS tracker on his collar, even if just to see where he goes on these expeditions!

Bailey (front, black) swimming with his lunchtime buddies at Guelph Lake today (photo cred: Busy Bee Critter Sitters)

This past weekend I got to attend an event at Little McCoy Island way up near Pointe au Baril in Georgian Bay.  Fantastic day, beautiful weather, lovely people and to top it all off, there was a moose swimming across a channel of the bay on our boat ride out to the site.  I put it in my speech, which was then an instant hit with the GB folks (apparently moose are relatively rare to see in the area).  Ya moose!

MOOSE!  Prob a 2-3 year old male

Anywho! More hijinx to follow, I'm sure.  Wow, did you know hijinx is actually spelled hijinks?  You learn something every day.  Thanks Blogger spellcheck.  I of course will continue to spell it my way.  Like the time I tried to bring back "whack", or coin a catch phrase ("you're breaking my box!") or am currently trying to make stick: "waking up in the 6's; eating breakfast in the 7's" - like for when you wake up anytime between 6-7 and eat between 7-8.  Another example: "Waking up in the 5's is the worst!" (so true).  Just wait.. it'll stick ;)

The Carden Challenge

I don't have time for a super long blog entry about my 24 hour birding/herping/mamal-ling/ode-ing/lep-ing adventure, but I absolutely wanted to share some highlights while I have 1/2 hour.  Then my trashy tv + workout routine must begin!  So, in 1/2 hour:

This year was my first competing in the Carden Challenge, an annual event to raise money for the Couchiching Conservancy which consists of counting all the wildlife you can find within a set count circle between 6 p.m. Friday - 6 p.m. Saturday.  And there are trophies for different categories, adding major incentive to competitors!

Got up to Carden around 5 p.m. on Friday afternoon.  VERY excited to get the challenge going.  Rounded up coworkers Jen and Ali, and headed up to Team Captain Ginny's house to drop our bags and strap into our field gear for the evening ahead.  We started at 6 on the dot and were rewarded the second we stepped outside of Ginny's door with a starling, a ruby-throated hummingbird and a blue jay, plus a chipmunk.  Nice!  Three birds down, who knows how many to go.. I was aware the records set for the area were in the 130s (yes, 130+ bird species in 24 hours) but had no idea where our little team would end up.  A herper, a birder and two jacks of all trades (oh, though I had been assigned dragonfly/butterfly "expert" - HA!).  And we were off!

There was lots of driving, which is a bit of a nice change from the LOTS of hiking that occurred on my last long birding adventure (Christmas bird count in December = 18 km on foot over 12 hours in 1C temps with rain - eek!).  Can't say I minded the car time.  A great chance to consult the guidebooks, discuss our next move, and cruise along with the windows open listening for birdies.  For non birders, you can actually identify most birds by the songs they sing (oh and no bird sings just ONE song, they are so tricky like that!) and it counts if you can pick them out by ear.  Thank goodness for Ginny's iTouch allowing us to corroborate what we were hearing with an amazing bird app that plays all the calls back to you!  Within the first hour we'd picked up a ton of warblers, thrushes, a catbird, a spotted sandpiper.  I'd realized my giant binoculars from the 1990s are like Zack Morris' cell phone and I'm definitely in need of an upgrade (why did I look through Ginny's $300 pair?  why!? now I know what the good life is like..).  We saw two northern watersnakes slithering across the road: our first herp species!  We saw a deer on the side of the road - ya!  It was a biodiversity flurry.

No butterflies and dragonflies were out in the cold, so I was technically off the hook that evening.  As the sun set, the sky darkened and a giant full moon yawned over the flat alvar landscape, Carden changed into a completely different place. The nighttime birds emerged and it was like nothing I've ever heard before.  A whip-poor-will sings "whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will" - repeating that call 20 times before taking a breath and starting again. Multiply that by hundreds of them.  Over top of that was the common nighthawk, swooping from a great height in the sky, nearly hitting the ground and then rushing upwards again at the last minute causing the air to push through its wings, emitting a loud burping noise that was like nothing I've ever heard before.  The air was lousy with Wilson's snipes - you could hardly hear the  other birds over the wind rushing through their feathers in a haunted-sounding owl-like call as they soared sightlessly through the night air.  We crept up Wylie Road (one of the most famous birding roads in North America, I've literally met people from China and the UK on it this spring alone!) and had to stop the car as a big red eye caught in our headlights - a whip-poor-will planted squatly in the middle of the road, daring us to come closer. Eventually I had to get out and sort of chase him away - silly fella.  We broadcast a barred owl call and got not one but two owls answering us back.  I felt so very lucky that night.  The funniest was when we played a saw-whet owl call and a bird answered that left us all standing there open-mouthed - what WAS that?  It wasn't any owl call I knew.  But familiar.  Turns out it was a black-billed cuckoo, for some reason awoken from slumber to have a chat with us at 11 p.m. (not a nocturnal bird at all) - I almost felt bad for waking him up and making him sleep talk (as we all know, I can relate to that for sure!

We slept for a ridiculously small 5 hour shift, then hit the road again at 6 a.m. and went for 12 hours straight.  We were rewarded with raptors (osprey, hawks), more mammals (snowshoe hare, groundhog on a rock), herps ("toad"poles, green frogs, garter snakes), another ton of warblers (there are so many species!) and finally when the temperature warmed up enough out came the dragonflies and butterflies!  It was a challenge for sure, trying to learn on the fly and identify these fluttering things, but I am happy to say I caught and ID'd a total of 7 d-flies and 8 b-flies and held my own pretty respectably against the other teams.  Ginny was a HUGE help with ID of course.  And where would I be without field guides!  I was determined to catch all three "Baskettail" species and was rewarded in the last 10 minutes of our day with snagging one out of the air, thinking "only Beaverpond Baskettails would be flying that high!" - and I was right.  YEEEAA!!!  At that point, Jen was just unearthing a brown snake and a red-bellied snake from under some warm rocks - what a successful end to an awesome day!

A highlight of the afternoon was a stop at Ginny's friends' place (the greatest property/house in all history, which left us all wide-mouthed with jealousy - 100 acres, forests, fields, gardens, huge barn, beautiful house, pond, covered deck, you name it!) which consisted of a place to eat lunch, overlooking a pond, while a Blanding's turtle (a rare species at risk) stared up at us from the pond and a red-breasted nuthatch which had been eluding us ALL DAY started to call out of nowhere ("ank.. ank.. ank").  I will never forget Jen's face when she heard it and spun around and stared at me wordlessly with her mouth hanging open - priceless!  I had gone off to investigate some tiny blue butterflies (they were all silvery blues, as much as I wanted one to be a spring azure!) and on my way back saw a stocky green heron crash land into a pine tree.  What the heck! Awesome!!

We laughed a LOT, which made it a lot of fun!  We were BEAT at about 3 p.m. but a baby Blanding's turtle on the road absolutely perked us up.  We dipped on a few species (where are you Ebony Jewelwings?! and we missed the loggerhead shrike by 1.5 hours!) but overall were pleased with our results: 101 birds (we were dying to make it to 100 - an osprey head poking out of a nest did it!), 11 herps, 15 odes and leps and 7 mammals (mammal highlight was definitely coyotes yipping and howling on Friday night as the moon rose).  We came in 4th out of 4 in our category - darn!  Competitive Kristyn was a bit sad!  But the next team only had a few points on us and the winning team only beat us by 30 points (diff species worth diff points, so likely beat us by about 20-25 species).  The bird numbers for the competitive category were between 100-120, and in the rec category in the 70s, so we gave ourselves a pat on the wing for that accomplishment.  And the winners were announced as we ate pie, so really, you can't go wrong doing anything while eating homemade cherry pie!

We never did see that moose that we joked about for, oh, 24 hours straight.  The blue-winged warbler's "rude noise" call made me laugh until my stomach hurt.  I ate (drumroll) 5 slices of pizza, a chocolate croissant, a bagel, a cookie, two granola bars, two homemade scones with jam and cream and a piece of banana bread with butter (yes, our lunch stop/hosts seriously rocked), potato salad, roast beef, two more scones, pie and cake - then decided I'm never eating again... We saw a fox on the road leaving Carden at 8:30 p.m. (blast! where was he 2 hours earlier!). We watched fields of pink Prairie Smoke (a spring alvar flower) roll by as we cruised down country roads. It was really a lovely 24 hours, and team Flickers, Skippers and Peepers (and yes, we got a Northern Flicker and a Spring Peeper - no skippers though, but did get a Twelve-spotted Skimmer - dragonfly) will for sure be considering an entry again in 2014.  And this time, we WILL be contenders for that trophy!!! :)

Post script that my midnight bath when I finally made it home and sliding my hot tired feet against the cool sheets when I crawled in to bed may be contenders for the best moments ever, in history. 

Ack! It's 7:57 and I still haven't added any pictures - here they come!!!

HA of course my photo uploader isn't working - are you kidding me blogger?!  Alright, alright I'm PVRing my show, let's see what I can do here!



Ginny and Ali checking out tree swallows on Friday night



Possibly the worst pic of both Jen and I, ever.  I love it!



Moon rising Friday night



Visiting a colleague's house to look for gulls and terns on the lake



Team Flickers, Skippers and Peepers!



Butterfly ID - Mustard White, or West Virginia White?  (we decided the former, less exciting one!)



Ali with the wee Blanding's turtle we saved from the road!



Bird #100: Osprey!



Last herp of the day: Red-bellied Snake - great find, Jen!



The net that caught the Beaverpond Baskettail!



No one said protecting yourself from deer ticks by tucking your pants into your socks is an attractive undertaking... ;)

Highlight Reel

This blog is called Off the Top of My Head. I find I keep waiting for a great story to tell but life these days just seems to be a series of small stories with no cohesive theme.. so off the top of my head, I just wanted to share a few great highlights from the past weeks.  Aaaaand... go!

1) Going to the Guelph Farmer's Market on Saturday morning.  I live in Guelph but vacillate between being a regular city-girl kinda consumer (fast food, Home Depot, Stone Road Mall) and a crunchy hippy (hiking and canoeing, buying happy organic meat and wearing Birkenstocks to work).  I try not to swing too hard to either side of the pendulum because I don't like the idea of being defined too strictly (prefer to be an anomaly :)).  BUT.. does anything feel better than buying local ag and supporting local merchants? No.  I don't really like mornings, or crowds, or, ironically, crunchy hippies, but I let my supercool friend Dawn L. drag me to the market at 8 a.m. on Saturday and I spent the rest of the weekend so pleased about my delicious cheese pies, organic chicken from a farm in Rockwood (I shall name him Colin) and dinner ingredients from around the corner that I will no doubt be back again! Already excited for berry season.. Not to mention a great night with Dawn, one of my fave peeps, which consisted of eating way too much, drinking pints at the Pennywhistle and lots of catching up and being goofy. :)


D&K <3, Guelph-style, 2009

2) The Leafs making the playoffs.  Are you kidding me?  Did I just write that sentence?  It's been a looooooooooong time since I've been able to get excited about that.  Like.. I was in third year university... about 5 boyfriends ago (and now I'm married! ha!).. I was barely in my 20s - madness!  We didn't get to watch the clinch live but that's ok (bc we were busy hanging with more fantastic friends, weiner-parent vegans Ben and Meagz), because we totally ruined it for ourselves anyways by trying to argue with the logic that they could indeed clinch a spot with a win on Saturday night.  Jeff and I were convinced that the sports reporters, the columnists in the Sunday Star (and the headline that read "THEY'RE IN!!!") were wrong.  Ya.. they changed the rules about ties for playoff positions this year and we didn't know it.  So, surprisingly, Jeff and I were wrong, and the rest of the world was right.  SO - our reaction of joy was slightly marred by our stubborness, but around 10 a.m. Sunday morning we finally accepted it ;) and have been in a state of overjoyed disbelief ever since.  I CANNOT wait for the hype, hope and joy of a playoff game - I hope we can get a table at Real Sports one night!!!! (bc hells no I'm not paying for tix to a game at the ACC!)

 



3) Dawn (BFF Dawn) telling me a story that made me laugh so hard I cried.  She's part of the reason I started this blog, because I swear more crazy stuff happens to her than could ever happen to me in a lifetime (and a lot happens to me, you have to admit).  So Dawn awakes at 4 a.m. to a loud banging on the door to her apartment.  Terrified, she creeps over to the door and looks through the peephole to see a crazy drunk girl outside her door, knocking and yelling to let her in, it's her, she's home, let her in!!  (Dawn does not, obvi)  Another drunk girl appears and says "maybe this isn't it.. maybe it's the next door".. and the drunkards start to make their way down the hall to Dawn's neighbour's door.  However, the first girl takes a moment to throw up violently on the (carpeted) hallway outside Dawn's apartment door.  SIGH.  They then move down and start the charade again at Dawn's neighbours ("let me in! it's me! I'm home!"), and promptly the girl vomits AGAIN on the floor outside the neighbours'.  I just picture Dawn in her pjs, watching this crazy scene unfold through her peephole, followed by a request to the building staff to please come clean up some hallway puke.. followed by now a vague, permanent stain on her carpet.  Let me clarify, I feel so badly for her!  But honestly, I could not stop cracking up. (don't worry, I won't post a creative, related picture)

 

4) Field season starting!  It was only 6 months ago I was burned the eff out never wanting to see a tree again.... BUT.. somehow.. I'm ready to go again!  I just loaded some property layers into my GPS unit at work today and I am STOKED!  With these awesome GPS units I basically get to stand in an air photo (like a Google Earth image) and see what type of habitat I'm about to walk into (helpful for not falling off a cliff, or drowning in a lake ;)).  There are a bunch of invasive species biding their time out there (I have the 2012 waypoints) but what they don't know is THIS YEAR, I'm READY for them!  Phragmites, Garlic Mustard, Giant Hogweed and most specifically DSV - watch out here I come! (that was a direct quote from the Dead or Alive song Spin Me Right Round, if you were thinking it.. it was..)

Garlic Mustard dies first

5) The end of the tooth saga.  Here's how this one goes:

- 1999 - should have gotten my wisdom teeth out like a normal teenager but my dentist neglected to tell me they were impacted

- 2006 - I get a new dentist who tells me my wisdom teeth are super impacted and they need to be yanked.  Oh and the lower left one has been pushing on my back molar for years and it's subsequently rotted and will probably have to be yanked, and the implant will cost $3,000.  You are a student with no money.. full price. $3k.  Fun.

- 2006 (later that year) - I get 4 wisdom teeth yanked (including some crazy procedure called a coronectomy to remove the crown of one where it was dangerously close to the nerve running through my jaw) and wake up with the questionable molar still there.  The surgeon tells me the tooth is deemed "worth saving" and it should be ok.

- 2007 - I get another new dentist since I now live in Guelph permanently, who decides that cavity needs to be filled, STAT and it's HUUUUGE!  Cavity filled. OW OW OW.

- 2010 - complete hot/cold sensitivity on the same molar.  Seems odd.  I don't think much of it, just chew on the right.

- 2011 - twinging pain in my face many nights when I try to go to sleep which I diligently ignore.

- 2012 (January) - searing pain in my left jaw, can't see straight, advil does nothing.  NOTHING (that is scary).  I see my dentist who finds an abcess below the notorious tooth and tells me I'll need a root canal.  But it's so bad that she wants me to go to a specialist.

- Later that week - specialist drills into the tooth to drain the crazy infection to find that the canals of my tooth are gigantic compared to any normal human and asks if I perhaps took a soccer ball to the face in my youth or suffered other major trauma.  WHAT? No.  This still remains a mystery - the mystery of the giant canals. Perhaps there's something my parents aren't telling me..  He then tells me he is very sorry for how much pain I must be in with that much area for the infection to take root - "he's never seen anything like it".  And, oh, no, he simply can't treat this all in one visit.  I will have a second freezing/drilling/draining next week.   Thank goodness for TORODOL in the meantime.  The greatest painkiller ever.

- The next week - root canal part 2.  They get it all, they fill the canals with creepy hot rubber that will apparently keep everything bad out forever.  My root begins to die. Temporary filling to cap off thousands of dollars of dental work.

- 2012 (March) - my tooth has no feeling, nerves completely dead.  Dentist puts in permanent filling and says watch it for a year then come get a crown.

- 2013 (early April) - fitted for a crown which means your tooth (in my case, my large filling that looks like a tooth) being drilled down to a nub and staying that way for 2 weeks.  Eerie.  I opted to not get freezing (I'm tough! plus the nerves are dead which really helps with not feeling pain) but of course the drill slips while she's carving my baby tooth and hits me in the gum.  Ya!

- 2013 (today) - crown on!  I now have a real-looking tooth that feels super smooth and weird, and is distinctly whiter than my other molars.  However.. I should be able to rest easy for the rest of my life with this solid gold and porcelain sucka glued on.  Too bad it's not actual shiny yellow gold.. that would be awesome.  Thousands of dollars (much reimbursed, thank you Great West Life) and many hours of agony later... I'm done!  And I really do love my dentist, despite the drill slip.  Thank goodness I found her, fixer of very scary tooth.

 

6) Last night I texted Dawn back "sorry I can't chat, we're watching a movie.  The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - it's great!" as we often share movie recommendations.  Her response: "is that a porno?".  I have been laughing all day at that one.

 

And that's about it for now, off the top of my head.  What else is there to say but cheers to spring, great friends, cute husbands, smooches from your pooch, and my Leafs in the playoffs - GO LEAFS GO!!!!

Florida

I was lucky enough last week to be able to jump in my car here in Guelph on Saturday morning and drive myself down to Buffalo to fly away from cold, snowy, never-ending Ontario winter to emerge in a hot, humid drizzling evening in Jacksonville, Florida.  I absolutely love starting the day in one place and ending it in another.  On this annoying cold, snowy, windy April day, please join me for a trip to Florida!

So I landed in Jacksonville, but it wasn't my final destination - I was en route to Gainesville where my friend Michelle is working at the University of Florida vet college this year doing a fellowship.  Smart lady, choosing somewhere warm to go for the year.. and everyone who got to escape Ontario to visit her this year is very grateful.. thanks Michelle! :)  I went to pick up my rental car and the guy was busy setting me up with my Kia Rondo (I tried not to actively pout when I heard the news, but it was difficult).  Then he said "oh, you're dropping in Gainesville - WELL, would you like a free upgrade to a Ford Mustang?"  UM, yes?! Who would say no to this? So awaiting me in the parking lot was a shiny new Mustang waiting to be driven all over the state for the next 4 days.. woohoo!  Nice note to start the trip on! 

..because of course as soon as I got going I was in a typical Kristyn hectic moment of not being able to find the power connection to plug in my GPS, not able to receive a satellite signal on my GPS because I was in an airport parking garage, and not being able to figure out the windshield wipers on the car while it poured outside.  And whoever designed the pkg garage at JAX needs a slap, you can't see any cars coming around any of those corners!!  But I have to say, as I blasted the radio, fiddled with the controls and drove out somehow without smashing the car into the dusky evening with palm trees blowing back and forth in the warm wind, I could NOT stop smiling.  I had a happiness that was filling me up from within!

The reason for the bubbling happiness, I actually figured out.  Work has been tough for the past couple of months.  Got a new job, which comes with new responsibilities, new committments, new challenges - and am also helping "finish out" my old job, which is basically a non-stop stream of crazy tasks that I am happy to FINALLY be turning the tap off on.  Bailey has been sick on and off the whole time we've had him.  Wheat sensitivity suspected.. roundworm confirmed (euwww).. sensitive stomach likely.. treats banned.. dogfood questionable.. bland diet seems to be working... my head had been swirling since getting up with him in the middle of the night the morning I left for my trip wondering how to fix my freaking dog who has lost a lot of weight, lost the shine in his fur, and just isn't quite himself.  And winter has been LONG.  Dogwalkers or even just those heading outside from time to time can agree this winter was ridiculously long with very little reprieve!  Also, field season is fast approaching which means a whirlwind of travel and outdoor work which is awesome, but can be overwhelming.  SO... I looked at my life at home over the past couple of months as this pie:

The dog has definitely taken up a lot of my brainspace and capacity to worry, but also just the general amount of time taking him for walks, taking him to the vet for vaccinations, meds and check-ups, scouring pet stores to find treats that might work with the crazy tummy, etc. etc. - it's kind of insane!  Work is sort of an inevitable that's going to take up most of my thoughts during the week, and hopefully in only a limited capacity on evenings and weekends! :)  Health and fitness has taken a nosedive - though I am only 5 lbs away from that New Years Resolution of losing 9 lbs, so I'm not doing too badly!  At one point I was only 3 lbs away.. but that was 2 lbs and a bunch of easter chocolate ago ;)  I'm glad I'm still able to make time for friends and family, and very proud of Jeff and I for ALWAYS picking at least a night or two a week that is strictly date night, where there will be no talk of housecleaning, dog poop, work or stressors and we just take the time to lay on the couch, watch the Leafs game, cuddle and be us.  Yay.  All in all, the pie is sound.  But the "me time" and "friend time" slices were what I was hoping to work on most in Florida, with some health and fitness where I could fit it in.

And I'm very happy to report that I maxed out on me time (reading nearly an entire novel and many trashy magazines :), random day naps, leisurely shopping trips), had a great time squeezing in some friend time with Michelle while she luckily got the day off work to explore and shop Florida with me on Sunday, and focused on health and fitness with (mostly!) healthy eating, a 5k solo nature hike and a vigorous workout at the gym at Michelle's condo (and another at the Atlanta airport.. stay tuned).  It definitely recharged my batteries getting to focus on a few of the really great and fun categories, and made me appreciate other categories even more when I got home, featuring furry dog hugs, furry Jeff hugs, time with family over easter, lots of fun plans with great friends coming up this month, and getting on top of some nagging tasks at work.  Florida pie was delicious; everyday pie not all that bad!

 

Highlights!

 

1) Swimming with manatees.  This was hands down one of the weirder and cooler things I've done in my life.  Strap on your snorkel, wetsuit and sink down into a spring fed river to search for ginormous gray underwater elephants, snoozing and swimming in their natural habitat.  Too bad the area was a BIT overrun with overzealous tourists (Michelle was subject to some manatee road rage which involved bumping and elbows) and that most people couldn't figure out that if you don't step on the sandy bottom the water will stay clearer so we can all see better, and too bad the guy on our tour decided to have a random "I'm drowning!!" moment and had to be towed in to the boat.. sort of cut our trip short.  But the underwater quiet, huge schools of fish and slow-moving manatees were an incredible sight to see.  My favourite was leaving the overrun area and finding a manatee just hanging out on his own, where we could all float around and watch him.  One time when he came up for air, we made eye contact and I got goosebumps (on top of my 72F water goosebumps!).  Very very cool.  Hoping the conservation efforts around these awesome endangered cuties works out well for them!

Check out this great video Michelle took of our lone manatee friend coming up for a gulp of air:

 

2) Nature walk at Paynes Prairie.  This should have been a very small mid-afternoon adventure just to the south part of town, but I of course followed my GPS 30 km south to the south entrance of the park where I was told that the good stuff (gators and waterbirds) were all at the north end of the park.  Defiantly, I walked a 0.5km nature trail and took lots of pictures, chased a butterfly through a forest and hiked up an observation tower to take a look.  Then hung my head in defeat, walked back to the 'Stang and plugged in the name of the road the park ranger had told me I needed to access to get to the GOOD nature trail.  I thought it was weird that I was now travelling east BELOW the park.. I was sure I needed to go back north just WEST of the park.. but I had a lovely drive, saw some things, and then inevitably nearly got stuck in mud in a hillbilly driveway off the highway that was clearly marked "No Trespassing!" in all three direction.  GPS 0.. Kristyn... 0....  While I was frantically trying to figure out where I WAS (times you wish you had a freaking hard copy of a map or a U.S. data package on your phone), the hillbilly ominously drove past me.. I didn't make eye contact.. but DID make it out of there alive and found the RIGHT trail. On the La Chua trail I saw gator after gator after egret after ibis after bison poop and more.  I nearly ate some of the vegetation along the trail I was so hungry (unexpected 1 hour detour being the reason I did not have lunch) but made it home in one piece.  I killed most of the groceries I'd bought that morning I was so starving, and drank nearly a whole brita full of water, looked in the mirror and started laughing at my million new freckles, sunburned cheeks and a tiny sunburned triangle where I hadn't quite zipped my zippered shirt up all the way. Not to mention the massive blisters on my toes from choosing that particular 5k hike to break in my brand new hiking boots.  Some field biologist who brings neither a map, food, water, bandaids, or sunscreen.  Ah, well - it was all worth it! 

Hanging with gators at observation tower



Nature hike in southern portion of Paynes Prairie

Gators!

Birds n' gator!

A beautiful view

 

3) The BATS.  Seeing 300,000 bats emerge from their bat house/bat barn on the UF campus just after dusk was unlike anything I've seen before.  A sky black with bats!  Michelle and I wisely took shelter under some shelter - bats gotta pee too, you know.  Check out vid that I only remembered to take about 5 mins after the peak of the mass bat exodus:

 

 

4) The SHOPPING!  Michelle and I agreed neither of us was really into shopping - but let's try out those Orlando outlets we've heard so much about anyways!  4 hours, very tired feet, very empty wallets and very heavy bags later, we were done.  IT WAS AWESOME.  It's like a collection of all those fancy stores I'd NEVER dare to go into at home, then everything priced super cheap, then everything 50% off of the super cheap price.  My mind was blown!  I am in love with my new finds, and slowly changed into a new outfit as we moved from changeroom to changeroom - I looked fantastic by store #4 ;)  Now I just need the 28C weather we were having in Orlando that day to pay me a visit here in Guelph so I can rock my new capris soon!!  Two non-shoppers had a very successful shopping day.

 

Hijinx...

 

1) Trying to find Michelle's apartment.  I often think I can outsmart my GPS or I know better (then again, it tried to force me down a hillbilly's driveway to get me to a state park, so you can understand my lack of FULL trust for its abilities!).  I basically drove up and down her street for 10 minutes before realizing I was a total idiot and had passed the place twice already.  When I got there her buzzer box was broken so I tried to follow someone in through the automatic gate.  Mustang is quick, but I was not, and the gate started to close on me.  AUGH!  Iron gate!  Rental car!  In fast-thinking mode, I honked at the gate.  Sadly, I am not joking.  When that didn't work (a wonder), I threw it into reverse, pulled over and just called Michelle who came to my rescue.  I was wary of the gate the rest of the time I was there.....

 

2) Trying to pay a toll.  You think two relatively smart girls could figure out that if you're not sure if you have exact change, you should take the toll lane that says "change provided".  Instead, we confidently blazed through to the "exact change" lane where all my Canadian quarters were promptly rejected by the automatic machine. Oh shit. As cars started quickly lining up behind me, eager to get on with their own highway adventure, I, on some weird instinct, jammed my hand into the change return area at the bottom of the machine which yielded a dime... another dime... a quarter!  a nickel!  I was going to make it!!  As I crammed coins in desperately, including trying the Canadian quarters again (?! surprise, they didn't work), Michelle rolled down her window and asked the "change provided" toll lady if she could make change for us.  Her cruel "no" seemed unwarranted, but just as she said it, I got the last nickel in, hit $0.75 (yes all this drama over 75c) and the toll booth arm flew up and I slammed on the gas.  Then I noticed my hand - it was black with whatever disgusting deposit was lining the bottom of the dirty, public, change return repository in the ancient toll booth machinery.  I screamed as Michelle found an extra napkin from breakfast, wiped it on the condensation from my water bottle and handed it over so I could wipe my hand - classy!  Mad drama at the tolls.

 

3) Nearly getting hit by a tornado.  As we waited in the rush hour-like traffic to get into the outlets (no joke, 45 mins to go approx 2 km and park), we noticed the sky was incredibly dark.  At that moment, weather nerd Jay texted to tell us there was some crazy weather coming our way.  Michelle said "oh well, at least the sky isn't green" - but when we looked again it definitely had a distinct greenish tinge..... Umm..  The rain started pounding the Mustang relentlessly - at that point I was glad we were only crawling along a snail's pace instead of out driving somewhere at a proper speed.  The thunder and lightning were INSANELY loud and bright, and actually very cool.  The palm trees in front of us bent nearly 90 degrees in the wind.  And when it was all over and we were safetly inside the outlet mall (thought that's a bit misleading as it's mostly outdoors and was a bit of a wet go for the first hour!), a woman told us that a tornado had touched down in a town 10 minutes away (side note - the town is called.. Doctor Phillips..?  what's up with Floridians?).  So that was a bit of a near-miss. We sent Jay a pic of me pointing at the green sky in terror, and he thought we were trying to make him JEALOUS because he loves storms and texted back "F*** you guys!". Lol - oh weather nerd Jay!

 

4) Trying to make my connection.  Oh dear goodness.  Ok, so my flight is leaving Gainesville at 11:50 a.m., destined for Atlanta for 1:15 p.m., where I then have a 2 hour layover until my 3:15 p.m. flight to Buffalo.  This should all work fine and get me home for about 8:30 p.m.that night.  Checked the flight before I left - on time.  Super!  Standing in line to check my bag with all the other passengers and suddenly every single one of our cell phones starts ringing.  Ominous.  Indeed, Delta calling us to tell us the flight will be delayed for an hour and a half!  Luckily this is still enough time for me to make my connection.  Until it gets delayed another half hour.. and then another.. and then another.  Until now the flight isn't leaving until 2:40 p.m. and there's no WAY I'm making that 3:10 connection to Buffalo.  Dejected, I get myself set up on the 8:30 p.m. flight out of ATL, which will get me into Buffalo just before 11, getting me home for around 1:30 a.m. on a Tuesday night when I have to work the next day.  BUT ALAS - my new airport best friend (random guy I was chatting with in the waiting area) notices that the "later" flight to ATL is now actually leaving earlier than our crazy delayed flight - let's try to get on standby!  I love this guy - we got on standby, he let me use his iPhone charger (lesson: never assume you will have a short day of travel and put your chargers in your checked luggage) to make sure I had enough juice to last what might be a very long day, we had a great chat about Texas and Ontario (I enlightened him that, actually, most Canadians do indeed have air conditioning units in our homes...) and he was willing to give me his standby spot if I didn't get it.  I wish I had his name to say thanks.  Stroke of luck: we both got on the 1:40!  But do the math.  The plane didn't get in the air until almost 2 p.m. 1 hour flight (at least) leaving me approximately 10 minutes to make my connection.  Another nice older man, my seatmate, helped me burst to the front of the line of the plane as soon as the seatbelt signed clicked off at the gate.. it was 3:00 p.m..  And the Atlanta airport is BIG. 

 

I crashed down the tunnel out of the plane to the terminal and burst out just behind the stewardess opening up the doors. I spied my desired gate on the screen, and I RAN! I landed into C37 (marked 57 on this map.. luckily not!) and needed to make it to B36 (honestly, what are the odds?!). I ran all the way down to the transfer in the middle of concourse C, went down the biggest escalator of my life (by this point, sweating and wheezing and in very close proximity to many people evidently not in any hurry, looking at me a little strangely, but nicely letting me by), ran blindly, following signs for "B", up the longest escalator of my life and then booting it all the way down the B terminal to 36. I have no idea how far it was, how long it took, I just kept thinking "if you miss this, it's an extra FIVE hours in this airport!" with a dead e-reader, a barely-living iPhone and a very disgruntled self - I lived by the "no regrets!!" mantra and just went for it. At one point I remember yelling "get outta my way, kid!" and there were definitely lots of incredulous stares as I was in a full out sprint. I came up to the gate, waving my arms frantically going "it's me it's me" through my panting. "Did I make it!?" I asked desperately. The attendent said "we shouldn't have held it for you.. but we did". PHEW! I burst onto the plane in a red-faced, panting, dramatic sweat and collapsed into my seat (sound familiar? this is why: http://www.sincerelygoofy.blogspot.ca/2012/01/ireland-first-12-hours.html). Then I spent the whole flight home AND next day coughing, feeling like I had fluid in my lungs. Umm.. any thoughts on that? Did I break my lungs sprinting?? It remains a mystery, but another successful airport sprint down on the books!

 

I managed to sail home without any other major catastrophes.  Of course my luggage didn't make it.  With switching flights and 10 mins of sprinting, I didn't expect my bag to be able to do both with me.  Not sure where we lost each other along the way, but I was happy to be reunited the next day at lunch - thanks Delta airlines and friendly guy with WNY accent who drove my bag up from Buff and left it on my front porch!

 

Highlights, hijinx and all, it was a really wonderful few days and I am definitely rejuvenated after getting away.  Sliding my feet into those flip flops was the BEST and I am now more eager for spring than ever!  A lovely chance to refocus the pie of life for a few days, and what better place to do it than Florida.

 

The Need to Sleep

I just felt inspired to write a little post about my love of sleep, which goes hand in hand with my atrocious behaviour when I haven't had enough sleep.

I have been a huge sleeper as far back as I can remember.  I was for sure that kid who hated getting up for school in the mornings (my dad had to "come back in ten minutes" at least 1-2x after trying to wake me up to get me going for school - he was my snooze button.. a good dad!).  I remember summer vacation in high school meant staying up until 3 a.m. and then sleeping until delicious 12:00 p.m.. My grandpa used to call our house to talk to my mom at 9:30 a.m. every Saturday morning and ended up nicknaming me "the bear" due to my manners answering the phone at that time of day.  Dawn is STILL terrified to call me before 10:00 a.m. (I am not, what one might call, a "morning person").  I can remember when I started going out to clubs and bars and not coming home until 3:30 a.m., then having to get up at 9 a.m. to work my high school part time job the next day - it was not a pretty sight (apologies to Cliffside M&M Meat Shops customers 2000-2001).  I remember the utter shock of university life when I was out until 3 a.m. most nights and expected to get up for class and labs for 8:30 a.m. the next day - ew!  It was at UG that I developed my love for napping (between classes, at the end of the day, before the bar - whatever I could get), out of the sheer necessity of actually getting my degree while still having the most awesome time possible.  Today, I am lucky enough to have found a job in town where I only commute 10 mins to work and work a 7 hour day, allowing for a sleep-in until 8 a.m. (well, until recently.. hi Bailey).  I have, over the years, been fascinated with times when I've had a small amount of sleep and managed to carry on: 

- In grade 12 I stayed up until 6 a.m. at a party and then slept for 3 hours and went to work my customer service job on my feet the next day for 9 hours; THEN went dancing that night and got home at 2 a.m..  I was astonished I was in one piece, and a little proud!
- On the night before my wedding I was up late running over details and scenarios and.. you name it!.. in my head until 1:30/2 a.m..  Due to a bridezilla and a scheduling conflict at my hair salon, I had to be up at 6 a.m. for the early hair appointment.  And I honestly had the greatest day of my life (the one time I can say that and it's not an exaggeration :)).  I remember not feeling tired until about 5 p.m. on the way to the reception, but that was the last I thought about being tired, until it was time for bed at about 2:30 a.m. that night!
- When I had a 4 day week in the field spraying Dog-strangling Vine this past June (my first large scale herbicide application effort, leading a team of 4-6 people), I was so jacked up going over details, planning, etc. that I was averaging maybe 3-4 hours of sleep a night with just one nap squeezed in one afternoon.  In 35C temps, in full spray gear, I'm still not sure how I did it for 4 days, but I did and lived to tell the tale!

Maybe the lesson is: when you gotta get 'er done (job, wedding, fieldwork) - you just sorta go for it no matter what! (I imagine this is what most parents have to do too, eh!)

But generally, a rule with very few exceptions, is that I need a lot of sleep to feel like myself.  I can describe this VERY accurately today based on how I felt this morning when Jeff's alarm that he'd forgotten to turn off went off at 6:07 a.m.... on a Saturday.  We'd stayed up "late" last night (midnight) and I was hoping to sleep until 8 a.m. or so - no such luck.  Bailey started stirring around 7 a.m. and though Jeff got up to hang with him, I never successfully fell back asleep.  And my mood was the pits.  I was a) exhausted b) irritable c) overly sensitive d) too groggy to pick up the newspaper and read it (our Saturday morning routine) e) too tired to join Jeff on the dogwalk f) too tired to pick up a dustrag and finish my half of the cleaning and g) so hungry I couldn't stop eating all morning (a common factor in the sleep deprived - too much of the hunger hormone ghrelin produced and I can certainly attest to the hunger pangs).  I was basically completely useless and all I could think about was "I have GOT to nap".  Napping is my medicine against sleep deprivation (well, ya..).  I can nap and then bounce up and feel completely restored to my usual self within an hour of waking (once I shake the nap-groggies off!).  So I woke up about an hour ago.. and here I am.  I feel great.  I'm ready to turn on some music and dance around the house dusting.  I'm ready to take Mr. B out on his walk in about an hour, and looking forward to how the fresh air will feel on my puffy face.  I'm ready for a night on the town with my ladies, and confident I can dance 'till I drop without collapsing crying on the dancefloor around midnight ;)

Anyone reading that last bit who is in the camp of people who only requires 6-7 hours of sleep a night, or even moreso, is a parent, is definitely having a laugh at this blog content right now.  But I spent a little bit of time after I woke up from my couch nap researching this interesting subject online and found, much to my relief, there are just certain people in the world who require at least 8-9 hours of sleep a night to function properly.  Symptoms reported by these people when not able to meet their sleep quota are fogginess, irritability, extreme hunger, fatigue and loss of energy and symptoms likened to symptoms of depression (!!!).  A large part of the reason I've been hesitant my whole life about having kids (apart from the never feeling the desire to have them.. that's a big one) is trying to picture a life of interrupted sleep, lack of sleep and loss of sleep.  Honestly, I am the most grotesque version of myself on little sleep.  I saw this woman in a parking lot the other day who couldn't even wait until she slammed her door shut before she turned around and started screaming her head off at her kids in the backseat.  I bet she was tired.  It's far too easy to picture myself in that role because my overreactions, sensitivity and general instability and inability to function like a human are so activated and amplified when I don't sleep.  And I would never, ever want to be that woman.  I feel bad enough if I get testy with the dog when he stands directly at my knees so I CAN'T MOVE (Bailey! he's like a furry log on legs) on a morning with not enough sleep.  I couldn't inflict that terrible attitude, daily, on another human being!  And since sleep deprivation seems to be an inevitable part of being a mom it seems like that parking lot mom scenario would be tough to avoid, for me at least.

So I'm writing this blog to take a stand. I am tired of people giving me a rough go when I tell them I need 8 hours (or ideally, 9 1/4 hours - a theory well tested during my lazy grad school years) a night of sleep to feel like the best possible version of myself: it's the truth!  I am tired of people telling me I could get used to sleeping less: I cannot! I am tired of being laughed at for going to bed at 9:30/10:00 to accomodate the dog's need to be up by 6:30/7: this is nothing to be ashamed of!  I am proud of recognizing my body's needs and striving to be the best possible version of myself through a routine of sleep and occasional napping that allows me to meet my sleep quota and then conquer the world, even if that just means dusting and walking the dog!  I want to be this (post-nap) Kristyn all the time.  It's better for my relationships, my health, my mental well-being, my productivity and attentiveness at work to better my career, my waistline due to an appropriate ghrelin-leptin production, and all around just makes me feel like ME. And who wouldn't want to simply strive to feel like YOU?

So!  A small cheers to some of the things I love:
- 500 thread count sheets
- king sized beds and body pillows
- heated mattress pads
- blinds shut tightly against the daylight
- earplugs
- a delicious mid-afternoon couch nap under the extra furry blanket
- a team nap with your lazy log of a dog, or snuggled on the couch with your hubs
- waking up feeling refreshed and happy about life
- no more waking up feeling disgusting and sluggish
- burrowing down with a smile on your face under your comfy covers
- giving into sleep, however much you can, whenever you can get it and not feeling guilty about giving your body what it needs

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...........

Thanks, Bailey!

Part of the reason I haven't posted in a month is actually the subject of today's musings about a new guy who has come into my life.  He's hairy, silly, loving and loyal.  I have a "type" eh! ;) (j/k Jeff).  On January 16, 2013 Jeff and I picked up BAILEY, our new dog.  Our best guess for his heritage is some sort of rottweiler, shepherd, husky mash-up, he's 2, and he was rescued from a reserve up north then lived with a foster mom west of London for 2 months before coming home with us to his (what they call in the pet rescue world) "forever home".  It's been a wild ride.

Some of the things that have been tough to adjust for (mainly for me, not so much for Jeff, he's pretty "go with the flow".. whereas I would never use those words to describe myself lol) are:
- waking up at 7 a.m. instead of 8 a.m. (I realize that was just met with a chorus of laughter, but trust me, I need 8-9 hours of sleep to function like a friendly, reasonable human so this means I'm now in bed by 10 - ahhh!  I'm a grandmother!!)
- not having the opportunity to rest my body when it's sore - for example, I have bursitis in my hips and a herniated disc in my lower back, but there's simply no saying no to a wiggly whiny dog who wants to go for his walk.  I definitely woke up semi-paralyzed on Friday morning after my back went out for the third time in 4 years - such a bummer/setback for me physically - and the first thing I did was walk the dog to the park in a foot of snow to run and play...
- being entirely responsible for someone else's health - this is exhausting!  Especially when your brand shiny new dog shows up with a double ear infection that involves shoving antibiotics deep into his ear canal 2x a day for a week as a very interesting "get to know you" strategy.  And especially when your dog has a (likely, we're still in trial and error mode) wheat sensitivity resulting in several day bouts of crazy ass.. stuff.. coming out of his.. crazy ass... oh man.  AND especially when your dehydrated dog decides to go on a water strike and stop drinking from his bowl.  The things a "mom" will do to get their "kid" to drink - I felt like such a goof feeding him chicken broth, homemade chicken stock, ice cubes, and water from my hand (which he drinks no problem - so what's wrong with what's in his bowl!?!?)
- the guilt associated with regular activities like going to the grocery store or going to work (these things NEED to be done if you want me to able to feed you, Bailey!) - I'm sure half of the guilt is imagined on my end, but half definitely comes from the big brown eyes and mournful wails of a pooch being left behind

Though my cons list is sizeable, it's absolutely miniscule in magnitude compared to the pros list:
- getting my lazy winter-hating bursitis herniated disc ass out for a walk at least once every single day for the past 25 days.  I lost 3 lbs in the first week without even trying!  Yeehaw Dog Diet!  More than that, though, I've been reunited with my love of nature which tends to go dormant through the winter months.  I realize that once I get up and get going, there is a whole world of wonder outside - snow that sparkles like diamonds in the sun, chickadees and cardinals fluttering through the treetops, brazen deer that stare at you from where you've disturbed them in "their" forest.  And the benefits to me and my mood from being out there are unreal - I feel like a kid again with cheeks flushed pink, eyes that can't adjust to indoor light after one of those brilliantly bright white snow/shining sun days like today, sinking straight into the snow in my snowpants and just marvelling at the silence and the big goofy buffoon frolicking in delight around me and the amazing feeling of coming in from the cold and snuggling up next to the fire or in my cupcake-patterned fleece pants and a big blanket.
- getting to enjoy exercise with Jeff for more than our usual April - October schedule.  Nothing better than holding the dog's leash in one hand, holding Jeff's in the other, and enjoying a still moonlight night together
- opening my heart enough to let someone else into my largely selfish life and reaping the incredible benefits that come with giving out more love, receiving that love back probably in triplicate (and unfortunately quite often in the form of uninvited neck licks - euwwww) and feeling that our little family has expanded and is that much better for it
- watching Bailey play with other dogs, from the puppies and grown up dogs he meets on his walks, to my "little brother" Ziggy (his uncle, technically), to Kristy and Ev's puppy Muggins - he is just in his element, doing slow motion submissive dog wrestling and trying to get a tasty dog leg in his mouth whenever he has the opportunity
- adding an extra layer of fun and love to our house so that everyone who comes through the door from the pizza man to my parents to our friends gets to make a new friend with the quiet, licky, belly-rub-lovin' pooch
- enjoying making your furry friend SO happy by doing something SO simple like giving him a belly rub or feeding him his new "sensitive tummy/limited ingredient" salmon and potato dogfood (again.. euwwwww - fish breath!) which he LOVES - you get to absolutely make his day probably 20x a day and that is such a nice feeling
- making Bailey as happy as he's made us.  His past is a bit of a question mark, but there's no question that it involved some abuse and neglect, which is obvious from the way he bolts downstairs after being told "no!" to jumping up on the couch (come on.. it's my couch.. I barely let Jana on it (she's a spiller!)).  Other than occasional required disciplinary "no!" ("no, don't eat the banister Bailey.."; "no, don't lick the stuff in the dishwasher, Bailey..") we have made sure his life is as comfortable, happy and full of love and good times as possible.  I can see with every passing day that he is loving us, trusting us, enjoying his new home and his new routine (minus being left alone ;)) more and more.  And when he runs towards you in the park when you call him back to you, it really looks like he's smiling, and he just can't wait to get back into your arms! (this may have something to do with the occasional salmon/potato kibble reward.. we'll never know).  He's such a wonderful guy and deserves nothing but a great life, which Jeff and I are so happy to be a part of.

Like with romantic love, there is no perfect person in the world, but there is someone who is perfect for you - and Bailey is just perfect for Jeff and I.  Looking forward to, I'm sure, lots of ridiculous stories being generated from his general ridiculousness and hopefully a long, happy, healthy time together.