Ottawa and other things

It seems like this week went on forever. Because of interviews and renewed involvement with a community group, I've met a dozen or so new people in the past week and a half. That may not seem like a lot, but for me -- the girl who has a strong aversion to even calling people on the telephone -- having conversations with twelve to fifteen new people in the course of the week is nerve wracking. Time and again I found myself answering variations of the same question -- What brings you here? I found that having to explain the last year to that many people is stressful.

People tend to ask well intentioned questions and give suggestions, but none of it really helps me in the long run. Sort of like picking a scab that's just starting to heal. I'm grateful that people are concerned and interested in my life, but the result just seems to be that I miss M. even more. We're dealing with things in the best way that we know how and that works for us -- it's not an ideal situation and I don't think that there's an easy or perfect solution. Things take the time they take and, at the risk of sounding completely corny, I've got to take it one day at a time. Thinking too far ahead is overwhelming, but only thinking about right now doesn't do a whole heck of a lot of good, either. Agh.

There is good news at the end of all of my angsting, however. I found out on Wednesday that I got the job that had looked promising last week. I start next week and I'm pretty excited. Honestly, it's not where I expected to be right now, but that's just how things are lately, so I'm trying my damnedest to make the most out of things. Plus, there is health insurance involved so I am a happy camper. I'm looking forward to having a bit of structure again -- I've accomplished very little in the last six months and have had tonnes of time on my hands. I'm more likely to sit down and do something when it's less easy to put it off. I wasn't always such a procrastinator.

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Ha. Speaking of procrastination, I've been meaning to do a recap of my Ottawa trip for quite a while now. Has it really been two weeks? It was a jam packed trip and I've tried to remember everything, but I'm sure that I left something out. Sorry if it seems like a jumbled mess -- I can't remember what happened on what day.

Food. My first thoughts about every trip I've made to Ottawa are about food, and with good reason. I feel like I spend about half of my time there either eating or recovering from the last meal. In addition to the fantastic meals made by family and friends, we ventured out to The Black Tomato (twice), East India Company, Piccolo Grande and Moxies (the spaceship restaurant).

Shopping. I didn't really do too much shopping. I bought a few cds (mentioned a couple of posts back) and made one two trips to Yarn Forward where I maybe bought some sock yarn (that's the Koigu in the previous post) and the summer IK. We wandered around the Glebe and made a couple of stops in The Papery.

Out and About. We had a lovely evening with A&G on the Train à Vapeur. This is the 100th anniversary of the steam train that now travels between Hull and Wakefield, Quebec.

There was a four course meal and roving musicians.

When the train arrives in Wakefield, passengers disembark while the crew (in this case the musicians) set about turning the engine around. The engine separates from the rest of the train and moves to a second track, where it reverses. It then moves forward again, onto a rotating platform.

Once the engine is turned around, it makes its way back to the original track and gets reattached to what was formerly the rear of the train. It's a beautiful trip, even if you happen to run into some rain.

We also went on a tour of the Rideau Canal:

...Had a short tour of the Château Laurier through Doors Open Ottawa:

...and made a trip to the National Gallery to see the amazing exhibition of Modernist Photographs and bits of the Canadian collection that I didn't get to see on my last trip (Tom Thomson & the Group of Seven and the Rideau Street Chapel). It was a busy time for everyone, but thankfully we also got to spend an afternoon with our friend Christie (who I hadn't seen in a few years) , with M.'s family, and took a trip to the dog park (with A.,G., and Reilly -- who is even cuter in person).

Wow, that's a whole lot of stuff, in retrospect. Ooh, we also saw Blades of Glory (so disappointing -- all the funny bits are in the trailer) and Waitress (great film, see it if you can. And oh my, those pies).

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In other randomness, Ivy is still sitting in my knitting pile waiting for buttons. No excuses for the delay, really. All that I have to do is make a couple of crochet chains and sew them and the buttons on to the sweater. Hopefully I'll get to that before Monday.

I also wanted to share this incredible story. It made me laugh and it made me cry and, after having had a very worrying time with Shorty last summer, reading a story like this made me a little more hopeful about the world.

Have a good weekend and Happy Canada Day, eh.