Staycation

Well it's true, I went on vacation in my own city and had an amazing time! Mum came up to visit this weekend which was so fun; I thought she may not make it for my first year but she did!

She arrived Friday night around 10:00pm (or so I was told). I walked to the train station which is only about 20 minutes through downtown. Apparently her train got in around 9:30pm and she was just sitting there alone! I felt bad, but we went to the hotel directly so it was fine.

We stayed in Cantlie Suites which was about a 15 minute walk to residence, but I stayed overnight in the room with her anyways. We got upgraded to a suite, as well! Our room had 2 queen beds separated from the rest of the suite by french doors, a living area with a couch and tables, and a bathroom. As we were exploring the room, I went over to the big closet doors and opened them. Turns out it wasn't a closet, it was a kitchen behind there! Simply a counter with a stove, burners, large mini-fridge, a microwave, cupboards/dishes, and a coffee maker. You have no idea how hard we laughed when we discovered the secret kitchen. It was a great surprise. Mum baked me cookies that she brought over, but if she had just waited until we got the room, she could've used our oven!

So that same Friday night I was expecting to go relax in the hotel and get ready for a busy Saturday- but Mum had other plans. We ended up going out to a bar for a few drinks and some nachos! While we were there, one of the (extremely charismatic) bartenders lost the top to a bottle and was frantically searching for it. I saw it behind him and pointed it out. He thanked me profusely and a few minutes later came over with 3 shots of maple whisky: one for my mum, one for me and one for himself. It was his way of thanking me for finding the cap! "I don't remember the last time I had a shot!" Mum said. We took the leftover nachos home and called it a night around 1am.

Saturday was very busy. We had two apartment viewings (because the other apartment we were getting fell through) and wanted to have time to explore as well. The first viewing was at 11:30am near Berri/UQAM metro station. The next one was at 1:00pm and was only one metro stop away. We ended up walking there then going out for brunch to Coras in the gay village afterwards. It was a lot of fun! The apartments all had pros and cons, but they looked promising.

After Katherine went back home and I gave Mum a little tour of residence, we decided to walk along St. Catherine street and do a little shopping! I got a couple new things, including a new top which I'm in love with. Our purchases also included a gorgeous new Lulu Lemon bag that my Mum got! We ended up carrying everything in it on our walk.

We eventually made our way back to the village where we were that morning and decided to go south to Old Montreal. It was a gorgeous day, a little windy, but bearable. We looked at the shops down there and I showed her where I stayed with my friends last March Break. After that we were pretty exhausted and only got back to the hotel around 7:00pm (since leaving at 11:00am). Through the whole weekend we estimated walking almost 14 kilometers!

We were very tired, and ended up hanging out in the room until 8:00pm (watching Night at the Museum in french on tv) then went to a restaurant called Boccacini's. It was great; we had fancy drinks, I had a delicious sauteed veggie wrap and my mum had an asian salad. We were still feeling pretty tired, so we headed back to the hotel and went to bed around 11:30pm.

On Sunday, Mum's train was at 11:00am, or so we thought. Once we checked out at quarter to ten, Mum checked the ticket and her train was at 11:55am! We ended up staying at the hotel for a continental breakfast buffet. It was delicious. That mistake allowed us to have some extra time together over a meal, and also allowed time for relaxing.

Afterwards, we walked to the train station and I waited with her until she boarded. It was very sad to see her go, but we packed SO much into one weekend that there was really no way I couldn't be happy at the same time.

This may sound corny, but my Mum truly is my best friend. When it's just the two of us together, we laugh, we explore, we see the humor in things that other people don't- it's like we're the same person. She told me that the relationship we have with each other is the same kind of relationship she had with her mum. I can see why they were so close.

I'm going home in just 18 days, and I already miss her. Time to stick it out in the home stretch, Summer is just within reach.

Love you, Mum.

Two Teeth Less Wise

Well, it's done. I now have no wisdom teeth left, and I couldn't be happier. Both sets only caused problems. Like I said in my last post, my mouth is too small for the amount of teeth trying to grow, so clearly the ones at the back got the bad end of the deal. From having gone through this twice now, I find myself wondering what horrible agony people went through before dentists or knowledge of what goes on with your teeth. Yikes.

So the operation itself kind of sucked. I went in with my mum, but she wasn't actually there for the extraction (I would've been embarrassed if she was, anyway). Still, she left work early to meet me and I'm glad she did.

First they froze me, I knew what to expect there since they did that last time. My sister went under gas when they took all four of hers out, but I find that it's too expensive and unnecessary because my teeth weren't impacted (not showing through the gums). So they left for about 5 minutes to let the freezing do it's job and I read about celebrity break ups. Katy Perry was singing Fireworks on the radio and I hoped it would end before they came back to pull the teeth. The last thing I wanted to hear then was her.

Once they came back and were prodding in my mouth, I could feel a little bit of poking on my gums. This worried me a bit. Turns out they can't freeze the top ones too much from danger of accidently freezing your brain... okay, didn't need to know that. But because of it, I could feel some of the pulling and the pain. I didn't cry at all with the bottom teeth, but with these ones the assistant had to dab my tears every thirty seconds. I didn't mean to wail, I hope Dr. Sardi didn't mind.

That upset me a lot. I wanted to burst into tears because all I could taste was blood and I kept replaying the feeling in my head. I waited until we were out of the dentist office and cried in my mum's arms. This is why I'm glad she came.

After that I bit down on gauze for a good 5 hours and didn't really eat until the next day. I have to say, I felt much better during the healing process (which is actually still going on) than I did with the bottom teeth. Saturday I was talking, laughing, watching movies, and went out to see The King's Speech with my mum and Molly. It was great!

On the way to the train station on Sunday, Mum and I went to the grocery store to stock up on soft foods before going back to Montreal. I had just taken a Tylenol 3 and ate a banana, which apparently isn't enough food for the medication to work with. I started having a terrible feeling in my stomach in the grocery store, like it was trying to implode or something. Luckily we figured it out, I ate some apple sauce before we bought it and I felt better. Mum knows what to do in those type of situations, thankfully.

So now I'm back at residence, laying around in my PJs, eating soup, pudding, apple sauce and yogurt. I'm trying not to think about home because I always get uncontrollably sad after I visit. But there's only 38 more days until I go home between 2 exams for a few days before moving out entirely and spending the summer in Toronto. I'd really appreciate time flying right about now.