Just NB

It hasn't been that  long since my last post of snow-mageddon (like Armageddon....but with snow? 😀😀) But what an eventful couple of weeks. My car cost $1400 in repairs, I went to pick it up the following Saturday, it died on the way home, I had to get another rental car and then I picked it up on Wednesday and SO FAR, all is well..... Let's hope I don't have to go through another round of that. Why the rental car, you ask? Why not just use transit since it's the easiest and most cost effective way to get around Montreal? 'Cause I had two job interviews that were pretty freaking important and I could not handle the stress of sitting on a bus hoping that their timing would be exact so that I could show up on time. These interviews were 20km away, which made it harder to get by bus. So the result of these job interviews....was that I got the job and I start on Monday. LIKE IN THREE DAYS FROM NOW. When I first found out, I completely panicked. It was like ...

Well, yesterday , I was complaining, shall we say, about the snow removal process in Montreal. And, seriously, thank you thank you thank you WORLD for this man in my life, that offered to leave work early yesterday to help me dig my car out of the snow, so that it could be towed. I know that most of you think that a tow truck would dig my car out of the snow, but because it happens so often - they don't do that. It's only if it's slightly stuck. Not buried in cocoon of the heavy, damp, disgustingness. I literally never complained about winter before I lived in Madagascar. It's like complaining about taxes. Do they suck? Yeah. Do politicians or lobbyists or whoever runs the world change them in the suckiest of ways? Yeah. Are you going to change them? Nope. So why bother. Winter happens every year and if you don't like it, save every penny, go bottle picking, donate blood, participate in a medical study, and move to another country. Yesterday, we arrived to this:...

So, Montreal has this OBSESSION about snow removal. Back where I come from (said in a red-neck old man accent), the major streets get cleared as they get cleared. The side streets....don't often get cleared and when they do there are big giant sandwich board signs up for a few days before. We learn how to drive on the snow. Here's how it works in the good old YUL. Let me tell you with an example: The weather forecast calls for 5 inches of snow tonight and then 8 inches of snow tomorrow. But, the good old Montreal Snow Removal Schedule that was planned in 1988 indicates that side streets Frere-Jacques, Dormez-vous should be cleared. The following two scenarios exist: Scenario 1: Magic elves come and tag every single street sign along Rue FJ and DV (Frere Jacques and Dormez Vous) with an orange sign that indicates no parking between the hours of 7pm and 7am. So anyone parked on these streets moves their cars to another street. Which certainly doesn't cause a problem...

Well, aren't I the Chatty Kathy these days.... Today, I had another choir concert. It was less formal and was at a geriatric center. It's called that. A "geriatric center". I don't know if I'm particularly sensitive....or if that really sounds...odd. Regardless, it's a Jewish whatever center, where old people live that can no longer live at home. I had never been and it seemed like it was quite far away, so I offered to drive whoever needed a lift. I picked up two guys at a subway station that was sort of on the way and off we went. My car was making a very odd noise...but it seemed to be fine. Side note - it really bothered me that I was meeting these guys at at a subway station. Like...it's winter, and one of them is like...late 60s or even 70...and I'm just picking them up outside? I was fully prepared to go to their house...but I think that's kind of a "country" thing. Them city folks are used to going everywhere by public t...

In another lifetime, we stood in front of all of our closest friends, our adopted family, and God and promised to be together until death do us part. I wore a $10 dress I bought in Hawaii....it was the eve before Cyclone Giovanna , certainly the largest cyclone that we would experience in our lifetime in Madagascar. Do you know...it truly was my dream wedding. I could never  imagine myself having a "traditional" wedding. Walking down the isle. Hundreds of people staring at me in a clean, pristine, white dress that I had picked out months in advance, followed by a formal ceremony with speeches and a dance while everyone was watching me.... So instead, we had this party...with very little planning, a lot of bribing of the local authorities...and YOU managed to organize it almost all yourself. The tropi-bar was packed. It was so incredibly hot and I was sweating buckets. We (or at least I....or no, at least I have to believe "we") were making the d...

I must, I must, I REPEAT, I MUST develop a new blog site for the stuff that's going on in my life now. I often don't write in this blog....because the people that read it...aren't the people that I want to reach (provided that I can reach people again...but that's another story). The timing of my second to last post was fitting, given that it was a few weeks before the Bell #letstalk campaign, which pretty must rocks my world. Howie Mandel is freaking awesome....and he kind of stumbled upon this awesomeness by sheer coincidence (followed by a lot of effort). It's worth reading this article and even more trying to find the hour long series on Youtube or something. Ok,  but back to me. La, la, la, la, la, la!!! The last week of January was a busy one. Monday: Choir Practice Tuesday: I can't remember Wednesday: Shrink and Choir Practice Thursday: Date night Friday: CONCERT (over 2.5 hours!!!) Saturday: 2nd CONCERT. Side note: have you ever tried to ...

I've has a pretty busy couple of weeks here, but I can't complain. I have a half written post written about last weekend's activities, that made a huge impact in my life (and hopefully with more positive impact to come), but I want to write about this weekend. I picked my grandma up from the airport on Monday night. I was slightly annoyed because I showed up two hours early...because I basically can't read some days...but oh well. Of course I brought Maggie because she kinda loves the airport and she kinda loves going ANYWHERE AND EVERYONE. Poor Grandma is recovering from a nasty cough, so we took it easy, after hitting up my famous pizza joint. We had booked a three day trip to NYC...but guess what....it got cancelled. The political mess, the time of the year....ended in a long phone call with me yelling at the tour company....but still our tour was cancelled. We were supposed to leave on the morning of my birthday...so I was really bummed...but in th...