I Have Shoes Older Than You

I notoriously hate birthdays. Not because it makes me a year older, but because the day is usually a disappointment. You know that song, I’ll cry if I want to? That’s me. I put too much pressure on the day to be perfect and enviably something goes wrong.

This year I decided to shake things up. I took the day off work. Then I took successful elements from other birthdays. Throw in the mom and throw out the schedule. Golden. We started the day off at my favourite diner (25th), where I had an amazing mimosa with cinnamon swirl French toast. Then we drove down to Illinois for ice skating (10th) and shopping. I skipped cake and had a giant bag of bulk candy (6th). Then I had dinner at Applebee’s (16th).

Even though I was sleep deprived, ate candy until I felt sick, and failed at shopping, it was an amazing birthday. Why? No expectations. I went with the flow, did things I enjoyed, and rocked out as a grownup and a little kid. After 27 years, I learned that birthdays can be fun. Wacky.

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Toonies, Tuques, And Turks

I’ve lived in the United States for over ten years. Even when I first moved here, it didn’t seem foreign. Not to my 15-year old brain. It did feel a bit like a mirror universe; things were slightly askew. Gone was the French, in with the Spanish. Obviously, the flags were different (and plentiful). The houses were shorter and older. It wasn’t acceptable to say pop, cutlery, or tuque. School started an hour earlier, ran in quarters, and had seven classes a day.

There are things I miss about Canada, but they’re not what you'd expect. I liked picking up change off the ground and having it be worth money. I adore Big Turks and proper hot tea. I miss seeing and reading bilingual anything. Chinooks and the Northern Lights are amazing. I miss hockey, curling, and the frozen ice pond we used as a skating rink.

Home is where you live. People wonder why I haven’t moved back. I loved living there but it’s not home. You can never move back to what you had. You can only move to someplace new.

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Want Me Outta My Head

I’ve been spending a lot of time in my head lately. Earlier this week I was thinking of things I liked starting with the same letter. This led me to find three things I liked for each letter of the alphabet.

Afternoons, Airports, Aprons
Baking, Bed, Breakfast
Chauffeurs, Chicken, Conventions
Disneyworld, Ducks, Dull Days
Easter, Eating Out, Estates Sales
Farscape, Foreigners, Frosting
Game Shows, Google, Grumpy Men
Hockey, Horror Movies, Hot Tea
Indian Food, International Influences, (Teh) Intraweb
Japanese Culture, Journals, Jury Duty
Kilties, Klingons, Knights
Laziness, Lemons, Lotion
Microbrews, Midnight, Multi-Tasking
Naps, Necklaces, Nut-Free
Oatmeal, Overcast, Oxen
Pajamas, Pigeons, Pumpkins
Questions, Quinoa, Quips
Rabbits, Receptionists, Road Trips
Sci-Fi, Scrabble, Showers
Tomorrow, Topperstix, Tourists
Understatements, Umbrellas, Uniforms
Vacations, Volunteering, Voting
X-Rated, Xenophoes, Xmas
Yetis, Yo Gabba Gabba, Yoopers
Zombies, Zoos, Zucchini

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For The Love of Scrabble

I am a horrible speller. Back in the day of weekly spelling tests and book reports, mine looked like a battlefield. Phonetics never ring true with me and my aptitude for memorization is lousy. Like many things, spelling is a knack. Someone who is a natural can spell words they have never seen before. I struggle with everyday words like restaurant and embarrass.

It would seem ironic that I enjoy writing (and got a degree that focused on it). I am also addicted to Scrabble. I could play it for hours and if I don’t play it in a few days I miss it. I have started playing it over breakfast in diners. Sometimes it's a travel version; yesterday it was the full version at McDonald’s. I have played it so much in the last 6 months; I might even credit it to helping my English vocabulary. (When you are desperately trying to get rid of a J, Q, or Z you tend to learn new words.) Luckily my mom and I play a friendly game otherwise I might have started drinking something stronger than tea to play.

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