This is Winter

It is -20 outside in Montreal. Even though the sun is shining, the distinctive crunch under your feet lets you know that it is really cold. Yesterday was a snow storm. In both cases there were few people to be found out and about.

Living in cold climates, people often retreat into the warmth of their homes once winter arrives. However, being an outdoor enthusiast, the idea of staying inside for months on end is never an attractive option. As I sit inside reading, I realize I have been sucked into a 'stay inside' lifestyle where I watch movies, exercise in gyms, cook elaborate meals, clean out old closets and observe the great outdoors from behind glass panes. In these moments I am glad that I don't have to be outside and pity the poor souls that have chosen to brave the extreme weather conditions.

Then it happened, a change in perspective. I realized that I want to be outside. That outdoors-oriented people around the world dream of having the chance to experience Montreal's winter and here I am taking it for granted. I am not snowshoeing, crosscountry skiing, ice fishing, tobogganing, alpine skiing, ice skating or even hiking in the woods. I had tried to convince myself that I wasn't partaking in any of these activities because I was low on cash, but aside from alpine skiing, none of these activities is particularly expensive (especially when you live in a place where most of your neighbours have the gear for you to borrow in a worst case scenario).

My only saving grace is that I have been taking my dog Odin on walks everyday. Once I realized the err in my ways, I started adventuring into the local wooded parks to revisit some of the places I used to adventure when I was a kid. Honestly just running around with Odin in the snow is gratifying. The snow is crisp and clean and seriously cool.

So here is to dreaming up some awesome wintertime adventures over the next two weeks and not sitting around on my behind letting this great opportunity to pass me by. Here is to learning that every landscape and every place being full of potential for fun and to being able to identify how to exploit them for the best.

Montreal and Toronto

At last I am home.

Montreal is the place where I grew up. It is a city filled with family, friends and many memories which is why I am happy to be back. But it is also an isolating place. I have been gone for so long that the houses on my street have all changed and the neighbourhood kids too are grown up and moved out. I am delighted to be able to reconnect with friends from the past, though I feel like a stranger trying to find her place in a world I once knew much better. It is nice to have the comforts of home (heat, couches and cupboards full of food), but I have realized that I have started to miss the peculiar and eccentric places that I have called home in the west.

To bring in the new year, I ventured to the big city of Toronto. It is where many of my good friends have gone to find work and develop ther careers. Toronto is a big city. I stayed in an appartment on Queen St W. One of those ones that sits atop the many shops that line the street. The room I shared with my friend was quaint and full of character. Her double-sized mattress filled her room width-wise, s0 when I went to sleep my head would touch one end of the room and my feet the other. The appartment being older and lived in by students and young people, was not insulated very effectively. When we sat in the kitchen and living room, the air chilled you to the bone and you needed almost as many layers on inside as you did outside.

New Years Eve, dressed in hiking boots and leg warmers and our backpacks filled with booze we walked the streets visiting other appartments as people got ready to go out for the night and we saved our money. The next days were filled with shopping, dinners and old friends. My favourite!

Now back in Montreal, I am alone. I am trying to keep my 8-month old puppy great dane from eating my aggressive meyers parrot, scolding them both for stealing my food as I cook in the kitchen and trying to enjoy the act of being still before I start to move again in 2012.

Being in the home of my childhood, I have a lot of possessions that have been sitting for years unattended to. I am enjoying taking the time to revisit and sort through the possessions I have abandoned for so long and remembering why I have kept them or giving them to the thrift store so that someone else can now enjoy them.