Fill in the Blank Friday – 01/26

1.   My favorite place I’ve ever traveled to is…well, it’s a toss-up, but at least there’s a common language. I’ve loved each time I’ve been toMontreal,Canada, and I loved being inParis,France.  Must be something about the French language.

2.     Spain and Italy      are places I’d love to go someday.

3.  I pass the time on a plane (or bus, or car ride or train) by reading or sleeping. If I’m on a plane, I try to wake up for the movie if one is being shown, then I go right back to sleep.

4.  My three must-haves when I travel are     water  ,    something to read    and     a warm blanket  .

5.  My favourite travel companion is…hmmm, can’t really say I have one. I usually travel alone, to somewhere where I know people.

6.  The craziest thing that ever happened to me while traveling is when I was 11 years old. I went to England as an “Unaccompanied Minor” (“UM”). My parents left the airport when we were boarding the plane, and after sitting on the tarmac for 45mins, we all got off the plane because there was some kind of mechanical problem. By then, my parents had left the airport and were almost home. I called to let them know and, because I was told that we would be re-boarding shortly and my parents were 1 hour away, my parents stayed home. The passengers and I reboarded the plane twice before missing the no-takeoff time of night so the other “UM’s” and I spent the entire night racing around a virtually empty airport in wheelchairs while the flight attendants all took turns watching (and timing!) us. Fun night!

7.  The most exotic food I’ve ever tried while traveling is…can’t say anything is popping into my mind right now.

8.  If I could live anywhere else, I’d live in Vancouver, BC Canada. I lived there for almost 5 years and loved it.

9.  I have been to    at least a dozen   states in the U.S. I’m not sure exactly how many as my family drove from Ontario, Canada to Florida one March Break when I was a teenager, and I went on a road trip along the West Coast from British Columbia, Canada to California, as well as trips to New York City and San Francisco.

 

22 Things I Have Done

This post was written in response to Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop prompt:

“A list of 22 things you HAVE done. (inspired by Sellabit Mom).”  So, here goes…  

I’m in my mid-thirties and I…

1. Travelled to Europe twice by myself by the time I was 16
2. Attended an Off-Off-Broadway play in New York City
3. Modelled 
4. Went on music tour to 3 different European countries in Grade 10 
5. Worked in the non-proft sector most of my career 
6. Said no 
7. Have been to Court 
8. Grew up on a survey crew 
9. Know how to drive a four-wheeler 
10.  Had half of my face bitten off by our family dog (and yet I’m still a dog-lover!) 
11.  Was a certified figure skating coach 
12.  Am always reading 2 – 4 books at a time 
13.  I’ve (surprisingly) learnt how to knit…and even more surprising, I enjoy it! 
14.  Ridden an elephant 
15.  Been surprised by my own inner strength
16.  Moved across the country without having somewhere to live permanently when I got off the plane 
17.  Have been proposed to three times 
18.  Been through a “best-friend breakup” 
19.  Had one surgery in my life 
20.  Visited someone very close to me in jail 
21.  Went to Paris, France for the weekend
22.  Shot a bullseye the first time I tried archery

Check out 22 Things I’ve Never Done too.

 

Remembering 9/11

 

There are always days in one’s life where you remember exactly where you were when you heard the news…of course 9/11 is one of those days.  I was driving to work at a private school, coming in a bit late because I had been working late the night before.  Radio broke into the music and said that one of theTwinTowershad been hit by a plane.  My first thought: “Well, someone in the flight tower is going to be fired”. 

 

Then the second plane hit and I knew there was something wrong.  I was so shocked, I took the wrong exit from the highways.  Fifteen minutes later, I walked into my office, and told my manager what had happened.  She thanked me and went to the Director’s office to tell him and everyone was in shock but continued working (well, our manager thought we did – she was not the most compassionate person).

 

Working at an exclusive private school meant we knew that many of the students had family members working in theTwinTowers.  I was impressed that school officials took all those students with a known family member in New York into private rooms, gave them a phone and told them to make whatever phone calls they needed to to find their family members. 

 

After they were removed from classrooms, other students were told what had happened, all TVs in the school were tuned into news and the kids were supported through what they were seeing by all teachers, staff and school officials.

 

In our department, unfortunately, our manager told us to continue making our calls to alumni to see if they were attending the upcomingReunion(did I mention her lack of empathy?).  After 5 or 6 calls, one of my colleagues told her that he refused to make any more calls because everyone was glued to the TV, waiting to hear about their family.  Our manager was not impressed but couldn’t do anything when we all banded together and had a mini “coup”, went to the Director, told him what she was doing.  He just gave her a look like “you know better than that”, and then we were “allowed” to watch as long as we made our calls the next day.  Umm, yeah.

 

At the end of the day, I was so drained and stunned that I couldn’t watch anything other than watch a silly chick-flick and drag myself into bed. 

 

I had a cousin living and working in New York (she still lives there) and her parents had asked my parents to keep trying to find her as her parents live in England and international calls weren’t working as well as we thought our might, being in relatively close proximity.  Thankfully, she and her boyfriend were both fine.  They are now married and have two beautiful children.

 

I still get goosebumps thinking about the day.  As much as I like Nicholas Cage, I can’t bring myself to watch “World Trade Centre“.  Whenever I see the Twin Towers in older shows and movies, I feel awkward.  On one hand, I want to go back toNew York and see Ground Zero, but I also like the memories I have of it when I went as a teenager with school.  I am saddened that the decision was made that First Responders were not invited to the Ground Zero ceremony.  I hope one day I will be able to be less emotional about it, but on the other hand, do I?

 

To all emergency responders and their families:

firefighters, paramedics, police officers, victim’s services, 911 operators, medical staff…

THERE AREN’T ENOUGH THANKS FOR WHAT YOU DO!