What I did on my sabbatical...

It didn't really feel like a holiday, but here are a few of the highlights:

1. I planned a trip to Toronto for April 2-5. This is going to be a very short vacation, but a needed one, nonetheless. I was sitting at home about a month ago wanting to do something really crazy (Spring Fever really gets to me, I guess!) and I saw that Peter Katz was having a concert on April 2nd in Toronto. I booked my plane ticket, got a hotel, and reserved a ticket for the concert. I am going to Toronto!! I am really excited to go by myself, and can't wait to venture east of our fair province. As it stands, in Canada,I have never been further east of Brooks (home town of our dear dear Denise, and site of the controversial Alberta Summer Games where I was forced to be on display in a manner both humiliating and [unintentionally] kind of slutty. If you don't know the story, too bad. It is something that Jess, Andrea and I try not to speak of.)

Some of the other things I will be doing in T.O. are the Royal Ontario Museum (which I will soon be calling the ROM), the Bata Shoe Museum (combines 2 great loves!!), shopping on Queen Street, ogling the high-end stores on Bloor Street (Holt Renfrew, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany and Co, just to name a few) and doing as much walking as possible!!

2. I planned an Open House for our program here at the College. If anyone wants to come and find out more about what I do during the days, you can come to the Sunflower Room from 4 pm - 7 pm tomorrow, talk to all of us and eat some great refreshments. (By the time I am posting this, it has already happened, and it went very well. So...sorry that y'all missed it!

3. I had a Lethbridge renaissance, of sorts. Last Saturday, I took Travis around the wonders of the downtown because he had never really explored our metropolis. Some of our highlights included Chinatown (all 2 stores of it!), Blueprint, Nicholai (the new furniture and design store), a new used book store (we cased the joint in the name of spying for Chapters), and best of all, Progress Clothing. I had not stepped foot in that store for 20 years, and I am pretty sure that the winter coats are the exact same ones I perused at that time. If you have not been to this store, please go. It is quite an experience.

4. I have started doing Aqua Fit: Deep Water Jogging. My boss, Jean and I are going to go at least twice a week, and so far, it has been an amazing workout. You get a chance to raise your heart rate, and work pretty much all of your muscles. My stomach is sore, but I hope there are going to be killer abs in my future...

Well, I am off to watch "The Office" and "30 Rock". I will be thinking of all of you when I am getting off of work 4 hours early tomorrow. Hooray for a slightly longer weekend!

So's Christmas.

You have probably forgotten about me...

I have tried to write for the last week. Really! It seems, however, that the longer I go without writing, the easier it is to procrastinate another post. Sometimes I can even pretend that my blog doesn't exist, but every time I log on to the computer, the guilt starts to eat at me and I realize that March has almost gone by with nary a word from me. I could probably come up with 100 excuses as to why this is, but let's not embarrass any of us with that nonsense.

This last Saturday I had the privilege of attending the Opera at the Met, all in the comfort of my local movie theatre. I have wanted to attend a live broadcast for about a year now, and so I give all credit and thanks to Amy Still who went with me. We saw "La Somnambula" (which means "the sleepwalker") by Bellini. I had never heard of the Opera before, but the music was beautiful, and the story suitably dramatic and romantic. Read about it here:

http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=268

I am really excited to see more operas, and the line-up for next season is pretty great. It includes Tosca, Aida, and Hamlet.

Hopefully this will be the first of many new posts!