Fresh Air is Fun

Today I finally left my apartment. I had been stuck here for the past three days, and while I do enjoy a lot of quality Heidi-and-apartment-time, by last night I was getting a little sick of it. However, the package I was waiting for came this morning (early too - before 10am. I was still in bed, of course) so I was then free to roam the streets of Wolfville. By "roam the streets of Wolfville" I mean "go to the school library and do work". It was darn cold today, and I discovered that I had lost my gloves at some point during the weekend. Since I live here, and not in Ontario with my parents, I don't have a whole system of backup mittens, so the loss was pretty grave. However, I needed to stop at the Pharmasave on my way to school to pick up batteries for my MP3 player anyway, so I was also able to score some mittens. They are wool on the outside and Thinsulate on the inside - very warm. I enjoy bundling up. It makes me feel cute. Plus, it gives me a reason to wear my scarf that was made with love by my Mom. Things that are made with love give you bonus warmth, on account of the love.

Speaking of love, I got a phone call last night that made me very happy. It was my niece. She called to tell me that, "I miss you, Heidi!" Her language skills have improved to the point that you can have an actual conversation with her. I told her that I love her a lot, and she answered me, "I wove you a wot too!" That totally made my day, or even my week. Then she regaled me with her rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Hey Diddle Diddle. I'm not sure if it's impressive for a 3 1/2 year old to have things like this memorized, but I was impressed. As her aunt, I feel it is my duty to shower Anie with unconditional love and to be impressed by everything she does. Luckily, these aren't hard goals to accomplish.

On the topic of phone calls, I forgot to mention that I talked to my friend Ken on the phone the other day. This was awesome. It has been a while since he and I have been in contact. I was calculating, and he and I haven't seen each other for 3 years (!), though we have been e-mailing and writing letters somewhat irregularly. I hope that we can organize a visit together relatively soonish. Ken and I got to be friends in the last year of his time at Laurier, just before he graduated. We went out together one time before he moved back to the Sault, and it was one of the best nights I've ever had (in a non-sexual way). We just did neat, fun, low-key things, like go out for dinner, play in Waterloo Park and talk by the river until the sun went down, and then we went to a high school in Kitchener (probably Bluevale, but I don't know for sure... it was dark) and we laid on our backs and stared at the stars, just talking about everything. Finally, we went to Tim Hortons for tea before calling it a night. I don't think that I've ever connected with anyone either before or since on such a conversational level. We had the best conversations, and so naturally too - nothing felt forced or awkward, as I recall. Anyway, my point was, it was great to talk to him. He has moved in with his girlfriend and is now acting as guardian to her 3 children. He tells me that he is really enjoying his new family, and he is going to send me a picture of them.

I can't get over how beautiful it is here, or how much snow there is, but I want to focus on the beauty. It was sunny today, and a beautiful day if you were bundled up, and a brutal day if you weren't. Anyway, on my way to school, and again on my way back home, my breath was taken away by the beauty of looking across the valley and seeing the snow on the cliffs glinting in the sunlight... I can't remember seeing anything this beautiful in Ontario, ever, though I know I must have. I should have taken a picture. I wish that I had a digital camera so that I could show you. Speaking of which, I've taken some webcam photos of my apartment for those who are curious about what it looks like. I'll post them someday when I don't have an Arthurian Romance to finish reading and an article summarize for tomorrow. Oh, and I also agreed to write a poem for the Blueprint this week about "fringe". I'm not sure if this was a good idea or not, but I've been bored lately, and feeling creative, so Dave picked the right time to ask me to do it. I'll let you know how it goes. I might even post it here if it goes well. Oh, I'm also thinking of posting some of my favourite recipes, especially my vegetarian chili recipe, but that fun is for another day. For now, I must get back to work.