Category Archives: Fun

Proud, Excited and Thankful List: 2013

Posted in Bumpboobs, Canada, Fun, Life, Love, Novels and Stories, Travel, Writing by

It’s evening here in Hungary, and we’ve just come from a lovely day at the Vienna Christmas markets. There’s nothing like a whole load of Christmas lights in the dark to make you think of the holidays and year-end magic. So that’s what I did today, and now I’d like to think about what I did this year. This post is for a reflection of gratitude before moving forward to 2014.

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Hello from Vienna!

What I’m proud of:

1) The novel. There are so many aspects of this that challenged me, and I’m hugely proud to have faced that adventure at full-tilt, along with incredible support from you all. Seriously, I feel like I won an Olympic medal for ‘putting yourself out there, then creating something awesome from the experience’. Can I award myself a medal, or would the Olympic committe protest that? Maybe a gold-foil chocolate one instead.

2) My husband. Zsolt shines in many, many ways. I’m proud of his looking forward despite a year where he was laid off, felt displaced, and learnt his wife has stage four. This guy is pushing forward and acts as cheerleader supreme. I’m so incredibly proud of him.

3) Becoming involved with VanierNow and writing people’s stories. One story that really shines that I wrote is about Erica, the not-an-artist.

4) Getting up in the morning, getting dressed, and living my life. I’m very proud of this. I do it for myself, for my husband, for my family, for my health – I do it because life is better this way.

5) Recovering my grandmother’s furniture to give it new life. I sewed those slipcovers myself, baby! Lulu would not be impressed with the quality of my sewing, but I think she’d like the sentiment.

6) My work with Facing Cancer Together and Sister Leadership. As I said, it’s an honour to share people’s stories.

What I got excited for:

1) My husband, this blog, my friends,  and my family who always make me smile and have great times when we are together.  (We’ve drank about a swimming pool’s worth of tea during our chats, eh?)

5) Water. Last year we bought ourselves our dream canoe. This year we used it. We also found a nearby swimming hole that – despite one nibbling fish – makes me feel so happy inside.

4) This article in Apt613, and then this article in Apt613. It’s such an honour.

5) Travel. This year, we travelled through the Alps, wandered around Zurich, saw Christmas lights in Vienna, took a train across a mountain top in Italy, went up the leaning tower of Pisa, spent time in the beautiful city of Pecs, looked for bears in the Rockies, rode a 2-person bike in Stanley park, and spend much time downtown Ottawa doing our groceries.

What I’m thankful for:

1) My husband, because he sees me breakdown about every day, and he somehow finds it in himself to put me back together. So, I’m thankful for him and the magic we have together.

2) My Mom and Dad, who have been taking on the world on top of pushing me forward to push back against cancer.

3) The hug my best friend gave me on the day I was told about those spots in the lungs.

4) You and You and You! I love to see people do well and live well, and luckily enough I get to mix with people online who seem to feel just the same towards others.  The amount of talent you have, creativity, compassion, humour . . . it’s such an honour to mix with the mixers online. And thank you for your enthusiasm around my own big dreaming, too!

4.5) For the huge generosity that was shown during the Kickstarter campaign. It has been a great support in our life, and a good help with my health costs too.

blow my mind5) Camille of Sister Leadership has been coaching me through some very big emotions, so for that I cannot express enough how thankful I am.

6) I am thankful for writing. My writing gives me a sense of purpose like nothing else. When I wrote that story about Erica and featured her art – that is what it’s about. When I write little stories that makes my husband smile, that is what it’s about. When I imagine worlds that are seemingly impossible and yet happen in my imagination then fall onto the page – this is what it’s about!

IMG_0761 copy7) The beautiful photo shoot my friend Lou of Lou Truss Photography did for me and Zsolt just after I had been diagnosed again.

8) Each deep, beautiful breath of air. And for my lungs easing up on the pain, thank you so very much lungs and body.

And that is me for 2013.  I hope there’s much more to come for 2014. Like, say, Claire Never-Ending becoming a Canadian bestseller? How can I make that happen? What about the dream cottage in Balaton? Plus, more sharing of stories, more writing of fiction, more supporting of others, and loads of health heaped over that happiness.

**I’d love to hear some of your most proud/excited/thankful moments from 2013. Want to share a moment, or even a blog post? Feel free to link them in. :)**

~P.S. I have been trying to learn about making cool newsletters (as opposed to boring ones), so signed up with MailChimp & added a sign up app on my facebook. I’ve heard that newsletters are good for sending out little excerpts/nuggets people wouldn’t normally get elsewhere from your work. So if you’d like to sign up for my writing newsletter, I’ll do my best to throw in some ‘fresh for you’ fiction in the mailer! Maybe a Little Zsolti story, or some short spin-offs from Claire Never-Ending. Let me know what you’d like to see 🙂

The CHAIR

Posted in Fun, Life by

Let me tell you about the chair. But to do that, I need to tell you a little bit about last night, and why we had to run out of our hotel room here in Toronto this morning.

Last night was the Mirror Ball for Look Good Feel Better and FacingCancer.ca. As I’ve mentioned (and if you know me online, you’ve probably noticed), I both blog and work with FacingCancer.ca. So, we were fortunate enough to receive an invitation to the Mirror Ball this year. It’s a really big gala that raises funds for the programs. This is the stuff that helps ladies receive complimentary cosmetics when they are going through so much, and gives them a place to share stories and feelings online.

Anyhow.

ChairWe were at the Mirror Ball and it was goooooooddddd fun. After catching up with the other awesome FC.ca bloggers and behind-the-scenes lovelies, my favourite aspect of this ball (along with the appetizers, ambiance, buzz, fancy clothes, drinks, and delish food) is the silent auction. Silent m backside! That auction room is busy with people looking over the products on auction.

Let me dip into my memory and share some of these things:

Luggage – starting bids were around 20-100 dollars. Those are tempting numbers, particularly since our luggage is on its last days!

Loads of kids stuff. No thank you.

Kitchen goods and home wear from the Bay. Including a lovely scarf Zsolt and I were tempted to get into a bidding war over, but since it’ only worth 20 dollars in the first place, we didn’t bother.

Cosmetics galore!

Trips to here and there (not needed, through the train trip across Canada sounds cool).

Random stuff: There were puppies, a lawn mower, some giant plush mushroom…

Anyhow, I’ve been anticipating this auction from the moment we were invited. However, while it was time to browse, we started talking to friends and just skipped the entire showcase. Suddenly the lights are flicking on and off, signalling everyone to go out to the dining room.

No way! Zsolt and I are rushing around looking at stuff and mostly dismissing everything. Then somehow, we bid on a random sweater (which was cosy as a cloud in heaven) and the luggage. Then  we go to the amazing dining room and begin the meal. Except this year, everyone seemed auction obsession (which is a good thing, since it all goes toward the charity), and so the whole table is flipping through the little book of auction stuff. Zsolt and I decide to flip as well. That’s when we see a listing for an orange and cream chair for 20$. BAM! Before you can say, “Actually, we shouldn’t” the Zsoltster had bid on it! We’re in for 20 bucks on a chair we have no way to transport back to Ottawa.

And the auction goes on, and on, and on… and no one bids against us to take it away.

End of the night comes – and we’ve won the chair!

WTF!

We hadn’t even seen the chair. And I can’t even tell you why we bid. It just kinda happened. We were struck with silent auction fever . . . maybe they put something in the food . . . maybe we should just take this as a warning to never go to Vegas—our self control is not up to the challenge.

Anyhow, we go and pick the chair, and it actually turns out to be quite nice. (We didn’t win the luggage, but we, again, didn’t want to go into a bidding war over the pieces)

So we take this chair up to the hotel room, and figure we’ll sort it out tomorrow morning. Everything will be a okay.

Skip to 12.30 pm the next day, and we’re waking up – thirty minutes late for checkout. I have never seen my husband jump up from the bed so fast. He is part zombie, part productive-robot. We are literally throwing things into our various bags, hoping we don’t get charged extra as we sneak out the door.

You know, I am going to divert the blame and say this was the fault of the Royal York for having such temptingly thick curtains in their rooms. It was dark as night when we looked at the time, and I was half buried in a pile of feather pillows.

We get our stuff together, and just as we are about to make a quick exit we remember, we bought a freaking chair last night, and there it is in our room! So here is the dilemma: we took the train to Toronto, and as I learnt about half an hour later, VIA rail won’t let you take furniture onto the train.  Sooooooo….. after walking around Toronto for a while with this random chair, we have this conversation:

I say to Zsolt, “Let’s ditch the chair.”

He says to me, “But we can’t ditch the chair. I’ll feel bad since it’s such a good chair.”

I give in, cause I know it would make him feel badly, and it is a good chair.

So, one taxi ride later – going deeper into Toronto – (the taxi driver fleeced us as he could smell the desperation off of me. It was hard to find a driver who would accept a chair in his car)  we rock up to a friend’s house in Toronto and are asking him to please accept the chair into his home until he next drives down to Ottawa, which he very kindly does.

Therefore, in a month or two, the chair will come make its way to our apartment.

We made it back to the train on time, and now we are rocking and rolling toward Ottawa. The Mirror Ball was such a good time, and it was a pleasure to stop working for the night and just have fun. There was good company, good food, awesome fashion, and late-night dancing. There was also a chair.

And that is the story of that 🙂

The end.

Sexism Surprise!

Posted in Food, Fun, Life by

Today I went with my best friend to the Ottawa Cookie Jam. This is a local event, and I think this was its very first year. Overall I’d say there were pros and cons, but the idea and the vibe have so much potential. I look forward to seeing this cookie party growing bigger and richer as each year passes.

sexism surprise

Anyhow, so we went to look at cookies. Of course, the only problem was that most cookies were already gone by the time we arrived – which was 25 minutes after the doors opened. So no pretty cookie pictures for you, because I was too busy running around trying to get the cookies before they all disappeared!

(Maybe next year they should stage the servings, or have more cookies. There’s so much cookie potential!)

Mind you, I’m not meant to be eating cookies in the first place. Since the diagnosis of stage IV, I’m really trying to cut all the sugar. My latest vacation wasn’t too helpful in this area, but I guess God was looking down upon my friend and I today, and said: No MORE SUGAR! So that I restricted my cookie temptation.

However, we did get our 8 cookies worth, and we brought them back to her brand new home in Vanier for a tasting. I mostly just ate one cookie – maple walnut, which was gluten free, lovely, and not too sweet at all . . . but overall it was lovely. We met some more friends and had dark tea with cookies.

Lovely!

But to backtrack slightly, as we left the cookie event we decided to walk home from downtown. This meant we had to walk pass one of the best schwarma places in Ottawa. [Schwarmas are like gyros, pitas, kabobs, donairs etc.] So I thought, “Hey, I’m gonna get dinner and lunch for me and Zsolt.” Their chicken platter is so big, it can stretch two meals for two people eating ‘not too big’ portions.

Right, so my friend and I go into the take-out place on the way back home. And we go in, there’s no line-up. We go up to the counter where two men are standing.  . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

And eventually one of them says, “Hi.”

So I said, “Hi,” and then—

THEN he turns back to the other guy, both of their backs to us, and keeps talking to his buddy.

So my awesome friend says very loudly, “Can we get a chicken platter?”

And this dude behind the counter turns back and says something like, “Okay.”

He makes the food. I go and pay.

. . .

. . .

. . .

After I pay, I am waiting for my food to be passed over. But he’s helping the next people, a couple. Finally, he gets the chicken ready for my order . . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

Then eventually passes it to me.

And as this is all happening, at some point during this exchange since it’s taking SO much time, the less naive side of myself wakes up from her nap and thinks: he is doing this because we are women.

It’s true. I mean, he didn’t say anything like “You Are Women, Therefore You Wait”. . . but he was quick enough in serving the couple behind me and both my friend and I came to the exact same conclusion.

So where does that leave me? In one of the best schwarma places in town, I encountered something I’d never expected to encounter here in Ottawa .  . . sexism from a guy who isn’t even yet my age. And it wasn’t even your expected body-objectification type sexism . . . it was, ‘you aren’t good enough for me to notice you’ type sexism.

WTF?

Of course, since he didn’t hold up a sign saying “I’m one heck of a sexist jackass” I can’t prove the situation was 100% sexism, but it did feel 100% like sexism.

So it makes me wonder, are we being naive to think sexism isn’t happening all the time around us? Well of course it is! And maybe we’re sexist to men, maybe men are being sexist to us, maybe it’s a cultural thing, or an age thing, or a class thing, or a media thing, or a one-individual-who-can’t-get-his-head-out-of-his-ass thing . . .  maybe it’s a lot of things. But it really leaves me extra unimpressed when it’s an intentional thing.

Anyhow, that schwarma shop isn’t quite so attractive to me anymore. That’s okay though, we’ve got many of these shops in Ottawa from which I’ve received excellent customer service when with girl friends. I love schwarma shops for the relationships you can make with the people behind the counter. Today was just ridiculous – so ridiculous it surprised the heck out of me.

And so there’s a little story about my sexism surprise. Plus, of course, the cookie jam. It was a wonderful Saturday, absolutely perfect in every way despite the dude whose head was too far up his ass. I loved today because it had nothing to do with the drama that has otherwise cast a shadow over my life. I loved the freedom of being with friends, going to events, walking through town and now writing it all down here.

So that’s all there is to that. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go dance with my husband.

~Catherine