Well I’ve completely ignored blogging yet again so I thought I should do a quick one before I head out on holidays.  Just a quick trip, 10 days, heading out to witness the little sis get hitched!!  I’m very excited.  The rest of the family has been in Toronto for a week now and needless to say I can’t wait to join them!!  Well I say TO but really the wedding is in Shelburne and I’ll be spending a fair bit of time in Brampton visiting with Luke, the cute little man that he is!  The two places are relatively close to one another and I won’t be heading in to Toronto, "the city" really at all but anyone who knows me knows what I mean by TO so I thought I’d let you few blogger fans know what the hell I was talking about too.

So Iqaluit has been dreadful this summer.  It’s been cold, windy and raining for the better part of 2 months.  We’ve had a decent day here or there but nothing to really get excited about.  It’s actually pretty nice out there today.  Well the sun is shining, so that’s something.  It won’t be long before the ice is back in the bay.  I’m serious.  We only got rid of the better part of it, the middle of July!!!  It’s still possible to look out there and see a chunk of ice floating around.  It’s retarded.  This is by far the worse summer I’ve experienced up here.  I think I got spoiled with the gorgeous summer we had last year.   You wouldn’t mind having a crappy summer if we had a nice fall to look forward to but it will be too cold to enjoy it, if it’s not snowing.   At least at home (Newfoundland) a crappy summer can be justified when the fall is warm and beautiful.  We’re just not that lucky up here.  At least it’s getting dark again at night.  I gotta say I love having all the light but it does make for some crappy sleep time. 

So I wonder if all my flights will be on time today.  I laughed at myself that time.  I’ll be lucky if I get out of here an hour after I’m suppose to.  I don’t think I’ve been on a flight out or into here yet where it’s been on time.  At least First Air puts off a decent meal… I’m hoping for some kind of chickenJ 

Instead of the usual connection with Air Canada to get to Toronto I’m going with West Jet cause they had their seat sale on when I booked my tickets and Air Canada didn’t but I didn’t mind that cause I have to pick up my luggage either way and I got the same flight times with West Jet that I wanted with Air Canada.  The only reason I really booked Air Canada anyway was to get the points and not to have the hassle of picking up my luggage for the connection, but seeing how that’s no longer a possibility because I don’t book all my tickets in the one booking (excuse me for trying to save some money) I’m more than happy to try out West Jet.  I’m looking forward to the tv’s in the seats… hopefully the plane I’m on will have them.  I’m all set either way.  Got my iPod all set up with tv and movies and a mound of music which probably won’t be touched because I’m finally going to read the final Harry Potter book!!  I got it a couple of weeks ago, pre-ordered it in March, but I’ve held off on reading it because I knew I wouldn’t be able to devote the time I wanted to once I started reading it, I’ve been too busy around the house and getting ready for this trip.  It’s been killing me seeing the book just sitting there, waiting to be read but I resisted.  I didn’t want to start reading it and have to put in down after an hour so the 7 or 8 hours I’ll be in either airports or planes today though should be lots of time to get a good chunk of it finished.  Have I mentioned I can’t wait to read that friggin book??

Well this was a boring blog but I thought I should post something just for the sake of posting, crappy I know but oh well, that’s my life sometimes.  I should have lots of stories after the next week and I might even have time during the week to post something, you never know.  I’ve picked up a new saying this week, not sure if someone else has said it before and I’m just ripping them off or if it is an original creation by yours truly but they are words I’m going to live by this week, due to the tremendous celebrations planned for the upcoming wedding….. Live long and party hard!!!  Feel free to use it as you willJ 

Honestly why do they make people work on the Friday afternoon of a long weekend??  Do they think they are going to get any kind of productive activity out of them??  Take me for instance.  I’ve basically been sitting here, thinking of ways I could get out of here before 5.  Make up a doctor’s appointment, fake sick, gouge out my eyes.  You know, the usuals.  But here it is 3:40 and I’ve done nothing good to speak of yet today other than thinking about getting the f out of here.  I have no desire and/or motivation to do any work and refuse to do any at this point.  I’m basically just mad cause I want to be at home, being productive there instead of listening to my co-workers conversations.  Let me tell you, not exactly riveting material.  INSERT “head beating off wall action” HERE.  I have a list of a million and one things I could be doing at home rather than be at work.  Well I mean that goes for any day of the week but its especially true on a long weekend Friday.  Good God I could cry.  I should have just booked the afternoon off.  But nnooooooooo I talked myself out of that because I only have so many vacation days left and figured I shouldn’t waste 4 hours for pretty much nothing.  Well there is my mental health at stake at this point but then again that is also a daily gamble.  Have I mentioned I love my job?

So anyway I figured I’d do a blog, that ought to waste some time and quite frankly I’m too busy when I’m at home to do theseJ  We had a bonfire last Saturday night and what a friggin time we had!!  Got out there around 7:30ish and didn’t get home til 3:30ish.  We had a pile of snacks, jello shooters, weinies and a big shit load of beer.  Who could ask for more??  Not this girl that’s for sure.  We had a nice size pile of wood to burn through which was also deadly.  Living in Iqaluit, there’s not always the greatest supply of wood around.  Seeing how we’re above the tree line it’s not like we can go out cut down a pile of trees or anything.   We have to scavenge at the construction sites for their scraps as the sealift season has yet to officially start so pallets aren’t that plentiful yet either.  Now once sealift gets here… woooo hooo we’ll be burning all summer.  Yee haw!

So we’re planning another bonfire for this weekend, Sunday night in honor of the long weekend and because we’re heading out to the Elks on Saturday night cause the boys are playing (One Eyed Uncle to everyone else) and that’s always a good time.  So Sunday may or may not happen depending on the size of the hangovers.  We’ll rock the Elks, we’ll rock the elks well.  The band knows our little crew as the “speaker sluts” as we always head for our dark corner on one side of the bar and stick there (except when we cut loose on the dance floor) where the speakers are usually set up.  Now this is a loving term as 2 of the band members are brothers of Teri, one of the leaders of our little group of girls.  Anyway, chances are by the time Sunday evening rolls around we’ll head out in full force to tie another one on… if the weather cooperates.  The GD weather around here is enough to rot the guts right out of ya.  Been nothing but rain and drizzle and fog for the last week or more.  If its not raining it just finished or is just about to start.  Driving me right mental.  I was looking forward to a nice summer, lots of sun, some what warm weather.  Well so far this year I got screwed out of that.  In the best of times the best we can hope for is a nice June and July cause August is usually rainy but this year nadda.  Well we did have a few nice days around the beginning of June and as the time goes by I fear those few days were the best of our summer.  This year the weather has not been my friend… at all.  I’m pretty sure I mentioned this before and I’m pretty sure I’ll mention it again… I’m living in a hell hole.    Well I guess that’s about it for now… must go stare out the window for awhile…

So I've had the great idea to put up a map of where I've been in Nunavut.  It can be found in the Photo Album, Where I've been in Nunavut  Not a lot of people know where these places are that I've been to or talk about so the pic should help:)  Hopefully I'll get to go to some more places and I'll update the pic as that happens.  The places I've been are marked by yellow dots.  I marked in Yellowknife, NT too just for the hell of it cause its on the pics and I was there before too.  Not Nunavut but it is northern:P  I'd like to get a world map going and mark in everywhere I've visited.  Add in some roll over features so I could put dates or notes on each spot...I'll probably need a website just for that:P  I'll add it to my "things I want to do when I get the chance and/or finish up the rest of the personal projects I want/need to do" list.  Oh its a little bit hard to see the names of the places so I'll list them here, in no particular order.... Iqaluit, Pangnirtung, Resolute, Cape Dorset, Igloolik, Baker Lake, Rankin Inlet, Arctic Bay (and Nanisivik but its not on the map but its about a 20 minute drive from Arctic Bay, Nanisivik is where the airport is for Arctic Bay), Sanikiluaq, Pelly Bay (aka Kugaaruk) and Cambridge Bay.  Anyway... enjoy!!  

Hey all, quick note to say I put up some pics of Resolute... can't really see much.  We were at the staff house which is out by the airport, which is also where the Power Plant is.  Anyway the rest of the community is about 5km away, you can sort of see it in the first pic in the album.  It was pretty quiet there:)  The road between the airport area and the community has got to be one of the best roads in Nunavut, talk about a smooth ride!!  Enjoy....

Alright I know it’s been awhile since I informed everyone of my goings on so I figured it was high time I got my ass in gear and posted something.  I know I have a small following and I’m doing my best to keep them happy.  But how happy would you be if I posted some crap just to post?  Not very.  Sometimes it takes time to compose these masterpieces or even just to have something to write about.  These little breaks in my postings are to be expected but never fear I’ll eventually put new stuff up.  Now is one of those times.

So here’s what’s been going on since I last posted… the trip home in May was friggin deadly!!!!!  Tracey’s wedding went off without a hitch… well except for the bit of rain but that totally didn’t ruin our having a kick ass time!  I’ve got some pics on facebook for those of you who are friends.  I’ll probably put some up here too but that’s a separate commitment from the blog so you’ll just have to wait.  Tracey looked gorgeous, but how could she not:)  The church part went perfectly!  This is also where I met up with the engineering girls (crowd I started engr at MUN with), some of whom I haven’t seen for years so that was awesome.  After the church, myself and Tyler were going to head to the hotel to get checked in.  I had a room for us and one for mom and dad, who were also in town for the wedding.  Mom and dad were going to do some shopping then they were going to meet us at the hotel.  Great plan.  So me and Ty are driving through St. Phillips and he sees one of his buddy’s got the garage door open.  You knows what that means… all visitors welcome!  So we drop in just to say hi.  I hadn’t met Darren yet and seeing how we were only going to be home for a few days it was a good time to get to meet him. 

Of course we didn’t just run in and say hello and take off again, we went in for a drink.  He had some Wiser’s there so I was all about that.  Had a drink, met the family had a laugh.  Alright we’re going again.  No no have another drink.  Ok twist my rubber arm.  So I have another one… and another one... finishes off the bottle of Wiser’s.  Now it wasn’t a full one so no snide comments please:)  So he’s pushing me to have another one and I’m like, no we got to go we’re meeting mom and dad at the hotel and we’re not checked in yet.  It was about 4:30 when we left the church, it’s now something like 5:30.  We were going to be at the reception by 6:30.  Anyway so I end up having another drink, he had a tiny mickey there so hell why not!  It’s about 5:45 and Tyler’s cell rings.  This got to be the parents.  Yep it is.  So I answer the phone.  Mom in a very proper voice says “Is Tyler there please?”  “Mom it’s your daughter” ** laughter, laughter** Anyway she wants to know what hotel we were staying at: 

“The best western out on Kenmount road.”

“ Oh god, we’re at the Journey’s End!  How am I getting out of here without looking like an idiot?!”

I roared.  Mom’s retarded.  Anyway so we finish our drinks, tell Darren that we really have to go this time… I have to make a toast yet and I don’t need to be absolutely loaded for that. Tipsy yes, but loaded no.

So anyway by the time we get to the hotel, mom and dad have checked in and our rooms had been upgraded.  Nice!  So we drop our bags in our room and head over to mom and dad’s room… walk in, Dad got the friggin bar set up over in the corner!!  Well we got to have a drink here.  Mom is getting a bit testy, no you have to speak, we should go, you’re not allowed to drink anymore til you gives your toast.  I’m basically ignoring her and pouring up some drinks for everyone.  Anyway we eventually get to the reception, just in time:P  The girls had saved us some seats so that was awesome!  The dinner was deadly, stuffed chicken breast with all the fixins… deadly!  I wolfed mine down then got out my toast to make sure I knew what I was going to say and the nerves hit me something fierce.  Anyone who knows me thinks I’m not shy, but it’s just not true.  I’m very shy.  They’re thinking of Fun Karen, in a crowd of people she knows and not getting up in front of everyone, making a toast with everyone starring at her.  I am not a fan of public speaking.  But anyway, I hear it, the intro for me to get up.  Oh god, please don’t let me trip up and for christ sake’s don’t let my legs give out.  I got up and gave my toast.  You know that scene in Old School where Will Farrell is doing the debate and he blacks out, that was me.  I don’t really remember what I said, how I said it… it was like I blacked out but apparently the toast was good and I even got a laugh:)  So I got back to my seat, took a drink, waited for the shaking to stop and the redness to leave my face and I was good to go again!!  Let’s get this party started!!  We had a grand time once the music started.  Laughing, dancing, and chatting.  Dare I say it… a good time was had by all:)  They ended up keeping the bar open til 3am!  We didn’t stay quite that long though, sometime around 2:30 I think we took off.  Mom was DD so she was driving.  Mom is not the best driver in St. John’s.  She doesn’t like the traffic and she’s never really sure where she’s going but at that hour, the traffic is pretty low so she’s ok with it.  Anyway we’re on our way back to the hotel, chatting whatever.  And then it happens.  Dad shouts out and I quote “OOHHH lets all go to A&W!”  and Mother locks up the brakes in the middle of Kenmount road!!  Well we lost it!!  She was flipping out, thought dad had seen something and she should stop.  Frightened the jesus life right out of here.   Me and Tyler in the backseat could hardly breathe we were laughing so hard.  It was awesome.  I still can’t believe mom got a fright.  As long as I can remember Dad has been singing that phrase, especially when we go by A&W but whatever, it was friggin hilarious and we of course razzed mom about it for the rest of the weekend.  Good times!  When we got back to the hotel we had another drink, laughed some more, then we went to bed.   Wedding, check!

So the next day is mother’s day and we were taking both sets of parents out for lunch.  We get over to Tyler’s parents and do the mom’s day thing and give them their gifts.  Garden stuff, both of them loved it.  So they were all chatting, Tyler was outside setting up the new garden clock for his mom and I sneaked off to the room for a quick laydown.  I was not at 100%, I was a hurtin’ unit.  Anyway so we head down to Klondike Jakes for lunch.  We all put our orders in, food arrives, I takes one bite of my club and lays it back down.  Oh boy that was good, I’m stuffed.  Yeah I wasn’t ready to eat, at all.  So everyone had quite the giggle about that.  Me sitting up there and everyone else feasting away.  I ate mine about 4 that afternoon:)  Anyway after lunch mom and dad went on their way and we headed back to the house.  We went out to Tracey’s that night for a BBQ.  We were only going to drop in for a drink, say hello, good bye then head out again.  Midnight I stumbles out to the car.  I should have known better.  It was a great night.  I got to have a great chat with Tracey.  You knows what weddings are like, you don’t get any real face time with the bride:P  Anyway Tyler brings me to Mary Brown’s for the fine feed.  Talk about good!!!  Holy god that hit the spot.   Mmmmm I love my tators poutine!

We didn’t do a whole lot for the rest of the trip home.  Did a little house hunting and some visiting and then we headed over to Halifax on Tuesday.  We had a great visit over there with Travis and Lori (Tyler’s brother and sister-in-law) Tyler was helping Travis convert the garage into an in-law apartment for Lori’s mom.  Lori was working so I got to do nothing all day but laze around the house.  It was friggin awesome!  Anyone who lives up north knows that trips home are usually anything but relaxing.  By the time you get you visiting done, and your shopping list taken care of and a hundred other things you try to fit into your trip, you’re exhausted so it was so great to get a chance to do nothing and not feel one bit guilty about it:)  Me and Lori would go out and do some shopping in the evenings after supper which was fun.  It was good to get to know them and I must say we get along great!  I felt very at home with them.  I also got to see some old friends of mine, Keith and Kelly the night before I left.  What a time we had there!  It was sooo good to get to see them, it’s been years.   We also headed downtown afterwards for a few drinks to end the night.  Lori is pregnant so we had a DD:)  It was a great way to end the trip home.

So I headed back up to Iqaluit that Sunday and nothing really has happened since then.  Well I shouldn’t say that.   We’ve gone out and had some drinks a few times, but that’s nothing new.  Oh I passed my law and ethics exam!!!  Jen did too!!  We were so excited to find out that we passed.  I didn’t realize how worried I was about it til I got the envelope in the mail.  I seriously considered ripping it open in the post office but quickly decided against it.  I didn’t want to have to explain to people why I was bawling….if I had failed:)  So that was honestly the longest walk home from the post office.  It’s maybe a 3 minute walk to my place from the post.  Felt like about 74 hours.  To make matters worse I got stuck behind the slowest walking couple on the planet.  I couldn’t get around them unless I wanted to dodge traffic.  I don’t think so.  I did the whole walk on one side, walk to the other side.  The damn slow couple kept getting in my way.  Once I got to turn down on my road, I booted it.  It had to look funny.  I was doing that fast walking, one pace away from running, while trying to look cool.  Oh and the whole time I’m talking to myself… “God I hope I passed.  What am I going to do if I didn’t?  I knows what I’m going to do, write the damn thing again.  God I hope I passed.  This better be good news” Etc etc.  I get in through the door at the house, drop my bag, rip off my coat.  Cougar is sitting there looking at me so I say out loud to the cat “Coug I hope this is good news” and open it up.  Pretty sure I wasn’t breathing cause I saw the “CONGRATULATIONS!  You’ve passed…” and I let out the big breath.  Oh thank god Cougie!!  I passed!! I passed!! I passed!!  Got on messenger and told Jen then sat around and waited for 6 so I could call Tyler (he was still at home) and mom.  They were pretty excited for me when they heard:)  That was funny too.  I called Ty first but there was no answer so I called mom and I said to her “I got a letter today.”  Mom: “Oh you passed!!”  When I was talking to Tyler I said to him, “I got a letter today.”  Tyler: “What does that mean?”  Mom is used to those kinds of phrases from me as she was always waiting to hear how the latest exam went while I was going through university.  She knew what “I got a letter today” meant, I forgot Tyler doesn’t understand those phrases coming from me yet:)  Anyway when he got back in town the next day he had a little present for me cause I passed my exam… a gorgeous white gold bracelet!!   Yeah I got the best boyfriend ever.  You can be jealous now. 

I got to go to Resolute last week too.  I wasn’t really all that excited about going up there but it did mean another community knocked off the list.  I’d like to get to them all before I move home but we’ll see how that goes.  So far, out of the 25 plants we (Nunavut Power) have, I’ve been in 11 so that’s not too bad, almost half.    I’ve been in a few of the airports in other communities but I don’t count those:P  I only count the ones where I’ve actually been into the community, not just the airport.  Anyway, Resolute was nice.  Not a lot to do and they are in 24 hours of daylight now.  Not that Iqaluit gets all that dark anymore but at least the sun sets.  For June in Iqaluit, typical sunrise is at 2am and typical sunset is at 11pm.  In Resolute, she’s up in the sky all day and all night long.  Really screws you up.

Tyler’s birthday is coming up next week so I got him a DeWALT 9 piece tool kit he wanted.  It was pretty expensive so he paid for half and I paid for half but I still say I gave it to him cause he never would have gotten it if I didn’t pay for half... and I did the bidding on ebay:)  The kit showed up yesterday and my god he was like a kid in a candy store.   Can I open it??  Of course you can.  It would be a bit cruel to make him wait.  I got him a couple other little things that he can open on his birthday so its all good:P  Anyway we BBQ’d for supper yesterday and Tyler always handles the BBQ.  I didn’t think we were going to have supper at all.  He ripped open the box, hauled everything out and had a look at it all.   It was hilarious to watch, he’s sitting there mumbling things to himself, looking at everything, flicking switches etc.  Needless to say he loved it and we did eventually have supper:P

Friday night the girls are getting together for one of our famous “Grunge Nights”.  One of us hosts and we all bring some food and booze and settle in for a night of eating, drinking, chatting and laughing.  Dress code: comfy clothes.  Lately we’ve been doing theme nights so all our dishes are of the same type like Mexican, Italian etc.  We’re doing Chinese this Friday.  Should be deadly.  We always have such a laugh.

So that’s the latest.  Once again I’ll try and do these blogs a little more often, but hell, not much happens around here so what the hell do you people want from me??  Geeze…

Oh holy mother of god I totally forgot this!!  THE SNACK IS COMING BACK!!!!!!!!!!  It’s going back in the same spot it was before.  They’ve almost got the site cleaned up and they have a pre-fab building coming up on sealift.  We all figure by September or October she’ll be back in operation.  God the first feed of the snack is going to pure heaven.  Like “whack me with a big dirty stick cause I got to be dreaming” good.  We’ve also decided to have a Grunge Snack night once it’s opened again and to give it at least a week after she opens back up before we do it.  The place is going to be a madhouse so we figure the food won’t be up to its usual snack quality of greasy goodness.  I suppose we’ll be able to hold off that long.  Good god, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Oh Christ I forgot something else… I’ve booked Marie (my sister) a points ticket to come up for a visit in October and one for Paul (my bro) for Nov.  This is my birthday/Christmas gift for them… conveniently Marie’s birthday is in Oct and Paul’s in Nov:)  They’re both only coming up for a weekend but hell that’s more than long enough to see Iqaluit.  It’s pretty much just an excuse to get on a big jesus drunk. Paul wants to see the Northern Lights too so hopefully they’ll co-operate and we’ll get at least one good night of them while he’s here.  He’s not here til late nov so that should be good weather for it.  Everyone keep their fingers crossed:)   

Alright really finished this time… Keep Kool!!

Well it’s Friday and my motivation for work is pretty low at this point.  Never mind that it’s Friday afternoon, 2 hours before the weekend starts… I’m going home in 5 sleeps!!  Got 2.5 days of work left.  I’m surprised I’m not sitting here giggling all day long.  Brain gets closer to being as useful as a bowl of mud the closer I get to holidays.  It basically consumes my every thought.  I’ve started checking the weather for next week.  Praying to god its nice here on Wednesday so we can get the hell out of here.  So far I can only get a forecast until Tuesday… you won’t freakin’ believe this… snow and blowing snow!!!  I hope to god that it’s nothing serious.  If we miss our flight on Wednesday we can’t get out until Friday…. GRRRRRR.  We’re booked to go through Montreal and First Air only goes through there on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Anyway, I won’t worry about that yet… yet.  Instead I’ll go over a little of what’s been going on with me lately

So I was in Pangnirtung (Pang to the northern folk) last week with work.  Absolutely beautiful there but not much to do.  That’s where I pretty much finished off the Disney Trip Blog.  Had a lot of hours with nothing to do.  I put some pics up in a photo album (Pang Pics) but the pictures just don’t do it justice.

Also last week we had a friend of ours turn 40 so a pile of us went out to dinner on Thursday.  Then we went back to Teri’s for cake and drinks.  Another great time for the books!!  Staggered home that night.  Then Friday a friend of ours came in town for the Trade show so we hit the elks that evening.  I only went out for a few hours which probably saved me in the end, cause the next night we hit the elks again.  One Eyed Uncle played at the elks that Saturday night, what a friggin blast we had that night.  We think we got home around 3 or 4… that’s still up for discussion.  No one can seem to agree on when the night ended.  We had fun though!!  Sunday I was a hurtin’ unit!!  Tyler went out for a run on the skidoo.  I couldn’t move off the couch to save my life so I said I would stay home  I spent the afternoon catching up on coronation street and watching movies…. the usual for a recovery Sunday:).

Speaking of ski-dooing I finally had my first trip on a ski-doo this week!  I can’t ever remember being on one so I’m going to say it’s the first time I’ve even sat on one.  We always had trikes or 4-wheelers for going in the country when I was growing up so as far as I know ski-dooing just wasn’t a big thing out our way.  Anyway, there were 6 of us that went out the bay to a friend’s cabin.  All I can say is holy mother of god.  Several times I was praying to god, asking forgiveness for all my sins and hoping for the best.  I seriously thought I was going to fly off the back of that skidoo and never been seen again.  Seriously.  Tyler never gave me any helpful hints or tips for riding on the shagging thing either.  Oh no wait, he did.  10 minutes into the trip he yelled out, “hang on!”  Thanks, that was some valuable info.  For the first 20 minutes of the trip these were the kinds of thoughts that were going through my mind… “what the hell do people find fun about this” , “my good god, how the hell am I going to get home out of this”, “I’ll be damned if I’m doing this again” “Oh my god I’m going to die” etc etc.  I was not a happy girl.  I was seriously comparing myself to a jack in the box.  I didn’t know what bump would be the one to set me off flying through the air.  It was all I could do to hang on.  Oh yes, hang on to what?  Tyler’s jacket of course with my mitted hands.  Not an easy task.  That’s it.  No back rest, no handles, nothing.  Just Tyler.  I would fly up off the seat about a foot at times and land back on the seat sideways and have to wait til the next bump to try and straighten myself out.  It was retarded.  But by the time we got out to the cabin I was doing much better and feeling much better about ski-dooing.  I guess the terror of hitting the ice at 60 clicks or more had worn off so I was more relaxed and was taking the bumps much easier.  The trip back to Iqaluit was a lot easier on me.  Didn’t have half the trouble I had on the way out.  When we got home I was complaining how rough the first part of the trip was for me.  Tyler finally pipes up.  “Yeah you just got to relax and ride the bumps.”  Thanks for the tip honey, its very valuable after I’ve figured it out for myself.  Oh and he also told me “when you see a bump coming, just tense up a bit and hang on”  Great advice for the person in front who can see the bumps coming… all I can see is whatever is to the sides of me and Ty’s helmet.  Awesome.  But overall we had a great trip and I’m looking forward to my next trip.  Maybe I’ll even be brave enough to ride a ski-doo by myself.   Ahhh, maybe not

Oh, myself and Jen had our exam, it was a bit brutal.  Multiple choice questions, gotta love em.  We basically would get the questions down to 2 answers, both were pretty much right so we had to pick the more right one:S   But we compared a few answers afterwards and we seemed to have picked the same ones, so hopefully that’s a good sign.  We’ve also heard from other’s who have taken the exam that they came out of it feeling the same way.  Just so unsure of how they did.  So again we’re taking that as a good sign  They say it’ll take 6 weeks before we’ll have our pass or fail grade.  I hope to god I passed… only another 4 weeks or so of waiting… fun.

Anyway before we hit the books after Jen got here, we had a big blow out.  The Friday afternoon that Jen was here was Toonik Tyme in Iqaluit so we all got the afternoon off to participate in Toonik Tyme events.  To us that meant going out for lunch then getting together with the girls to go on a big dirty drunk.  And that’s exactly what we did.  About 2 or so we cracked our first beer and it went downhill from there.  We started at my place with some primers while we waited for the elks to open up at 4.  Jen suggested shooters so we had a couple rounds of them before we left the house.  We were well on our way to a hangover by the time we left the house and staggered over to the elks.  The situation didn’t improve when we got there  What a friggin time we had!  I think it was about 10 or 10:30 when me and Jen finally left the elks.  Everyone else had gone home by then.  We were in a state.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  Nothing better than getting together with the crowd and going on a big dirty drunk in the middle of the day.  What a time you have!!  I wouldn’t suggest doing it all the time but when a free Friday afternoon presents itself… you might as well take advantage of it!!

Well that’s about it for now… 2 hours to go…. I can make it.  I think I can I think I can I think I can I think I can…

So it’s finally finished.  I’ve got the trip documented from start to finish. I’ve put each day as a separate entry but its all in order, so start reading here and go until you hits the end:)

DISCLAIMER:  Before you begin… prepare yourself… this one is going to be very, very LONG!!  I’m not joking.  Seriously, go make yourself a cup of tea and get settled, this is going to take awhile.  Maybe you didn’t understand me.  This is a detail telling of the Traverse’s sisters Dream Vacation to Disney World… it’s a small novel.  Hell it could be a three hour movie!  Got your tea and/or other hot beverage?  Alrighty then jump right in….

So I’ll start at the beginning… I got into Toronto around 8pm on Feb 6^th, a full 2 days later than expected but whatever, I finally made it there!!  We’ll be in Disney in 14 hours!!  So the first order of business was to head to Paul and Teri’s to see the most adorable kid in the world… Luke, my nephew!  He is perfect!!  I could sit and stare at him all day, no joke.  One of my cousins said that babies are the biggest time wasters and I believe it!  We just sit there and wait for him to do something, anything.  Smile, giggle, roll over, grunt, whatever, it doesn’t matter… it’s all too cute!!  So after the brief visit we headed over to Marie’s to get sorted for our trip… this was about 10:30pm.

Get to Marie’s and we’re chatting and watching tv etc etc.  Then I hear that Marie isn’t really packed for the trip.  I had sent her a kit list with what she needed to bring.  This is the first real big trip she’s ever been on so she really wasn’t sure what to bring.  So we head up to her room to sort out her suitcase…. Oh. My. God.  Talk about over packing!!   I’ll highlight some of my favourites… I said 1 towel for the waterpark, she had 3 packed.  I said a pair of sneakers, sandals and nice shoes… she had sneakers, nice shoes, sandals and 3 pairs of flip flops.  I said 3 nice outfits for going out in the evenings, she had 7.  I said one swimsuit, she had 5.  I said pj’s so she brought 3 pairs of pj pants.  We were only going for 5 nights I think one pair will do.  Those were the things I had a good laugh about but the one that took the cake was the body wash and puff.  I put that on the list, didn’t think I had to specify that it was a personal choice.  She went out and bought a big bottle of body wash just because I had it on the list… she doesn’t even use it!!  I laughed a lot about that one.  When it was all over she was a bit taken back with how little she had in her suitcase at which point I reminder her that we needed to leave room for souvenirs, gifts etc.  So once we got her suitcase sorted out and we stopped talking it was 1:30ish… we were getting up at 3:00am, calling a cab by 3:30… not much sleep for the Traverse’s sisters.  Needless to say we didn’t really sleep so we got up, threw some clothes on and called the cab… I noted that the dream began at 3:40am, in the cab on our way to the airport.

We get to the airport around 4 and head to the counter, we’re the first ones in line:P  But it doesn’t take long for more people to show up so we’re glad we got there when we did.  Then we headed through customs, which I hate.  I always feel paranoid and I find customs agents so cold.  We go through together and buddy is asking us where we’re going etc etc and then he asks what we are bringing with us.  Maybe it was because I was tired but I laugh, didn’t think he was serious but I was wrong.  He was serious so Marie pipes up and says, just clothes.  So then he throws all our stuff at us (passport, boarding pass, customs papers) and tells us to move on.  So we’re out just pass the wicket and are sorting our papers and they tell us we can’t stand there.  Like really, its 5am, you just screwed up all our nicely organized papers which you’ll be barking at us to hand over again and will be pissed cause you have to sort them out, so give us a friggin’ break.  Anyway we just complained to ourselves a bit while we went through the rest of the screening process.  After that we found something to eat and made our way to our gate.  We pretty much slept the whole way down, we were a little tired.  The flight was pretty good though, only 3 hours, which I was surprised at, totally thought it would be a longer flight but who cares… we made it!!  So its 9:30am, going on very little sleep and we’re like 2 kids hopped up on sugar skipping (literally) through the airport, holding hands and giggling.  Obviously people were starring which cracked us up even more.  So we started making up commentary from the people who were giving us the funny looks.  Oh they must be crazy Canadians… there go some crazy lesbian Canadians.  Maybe it was because we were tired but we were cracking ourselves up.  Anyway, we’re wandering around the Orlando airport, wondering where it is we have to go and trying to figure out where the Magical Express counter is.  Included in our little dream vacation is the Disney Magical Express, a lovely service that picks you up from the airport and drops you at your hotel… including your luggage.  Oh yeah that’s right.  We didn’t have to pick up our luggage.  Well we weren’t sure, pretty sure but not positive, which had Marie a bit panicked.  I said that there was no where for us to pick it up yet, so calm down.  We had attached our yellow Magical Express tags to them so we should be fine.  We got to take some sort of monorail type train over to another part of the airport, that was fun and it looked like we were getting to where we should be going and Marie is still having a heart attack over the luggage.  So I head over to a security guard/info services type looking guy and ask him.  He said if it’s tagged then just find your way to the Magical Express check-in.  Ok, will do!  So off we go.  We find it down on the bottom floor and we head over to the guy with the humungous Mickey hand on and the first thing out of Marie’s mouth is and I quote, “One question, should we have luggage?”  He said if it’s tagged, just head on up to the counter.  Alrighty!  So eventually we’re all set to go and we’re in the line up for the coach bus.  It was all very exciting!!  Oh funny story… there was this guy there with a couple of his kids, somewhere around the ages of 5-10 and they were ripping around him, having the time of their lives.  The dad however was not.  You could hear him yelling at the kids, under his breath, “STOP IT!!!” “FIND CONTROL!!”  We friggin busted.  Yeah those kids are going to find control alright.

So we get on the bus, and head to our hotel, a short trip, like 30 minutes or so.  Luckily ours was the first stop… Florida’s Old Key West.  That’s where we called home for the next 6 days.  We were dropped right at the area where you check in.  We weren’t in a hotel so much as a resort so the check in spot was a building all to itself.  Also in the same area were the general store (complete with beer I might add), a restaurant, guest services and stuff like that.  So we go in to get checked in, everything went so smoothly!!  Where we were arriving so early in the day, there was a possibility that our room would not be ready cause check in, isn’t until 4pm but our room was ready right away!  The missus that took care of us said “I put you in a really nice room and it’s really close too”.  This sounded good… but we had no idea how good.  So we head off to go find our room.  It was like 2 minutes away.  I don’t even think it took us that long and holy mother of god when we opened the door to our place… I instantly got worried.  “ah I don’t think we should have this place”  I’ll admit, money issues were running through my head.  I booked a studio villa, this looked like a one bedroom, and there’s a big difference in the price.  I was thinking I was going to get charged for the better room but Marie, god love her, calmed me down.  The room was already paid for, and the missus at the check in said the balance was zero.  Right, so she did.  Phewf.  Let’s check this place out!  So once we wandered around and opened up, almost every door in the place (we finally found a tv in the living room on our last day, in the one place we didn’t look, the island in the kitchen:P) and we realized we were hungry.  What is going to fill the void?  Ah beer and pizza sounds good!  So we went down to the store, bought some beer and pizza,  headed back to the room and cooked it up in our handy dandy full kitchen.  We called the appropriate people and let them know we made it alright, we’re in a kick ass hotel room and already having a magical day:)

I have to say at this point Marie, once again, came to my rescue.  The magnitude of what we wanted to accomplish in the next 6 days hit me like a bag of bricks and I was feeling more than a little overwhelmed.  So Marie took charge and made some arrangements for Cirque de Soleil, and character dinning (all included in our package, we just needed to set the dates).  Then we sat down and sort of planned out our days.  I felt better then and found control:P  At this point we had intended on taking a nap cause we were dropping so we went in to lay down for a bit.  We wanted to wait until we got our luggage.  We didn’t have to wait but we wanted too, we weren’t really dressed for park hopping.  Anyway, about 10 minutes later there was a knock on the door.  It’s our luggage!!  Oh yes, delivered right to our room.  This place friggin’ rocks!  So once we got our luggage, we got a second (or was it third??) wind of the day.  Originally we figured we’d stick around the hotel and take it easy but we said… screw that!!  Let’s hit a park!

We got ready and made the quick trip down to the bus stop (next to the check in spot) and waited for our bus.  We hit MGM Studio’s first and once we got in I again felt a little over whelmed.  But we made our way up through the park and I found an info booth and got a map.  Not the crappy one I printed out from the net but the real park map, much better, and much clearer.  So once I had the map, I was good to go.  Took a few minutes and got my bearings… Marie was getting ancy, “just pick something and lets go there”  So we headed up and got on the “Great Movie Ride”  This looks pretty cool and it was on our list of “things we must see/do while in Disney World” provided by Marie’s co-worker Gloria (pretty sure that’s her name) who had recently visited Disney World.  Well what a disappointed that was for me.  I’m all about the big, fast, exciting rides.  This one was a ticker tape parade through different movie eras.  I mean it was pretty good, there was some live action around us, few things popped out here and there but I wanted something more like a roller coaster.  This was definitely not it.  When we got out of there, we were just in time for the Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade!  Saw lots of characters, old cars and took a pile of pictures.  The next thing we headed for was the famous Indian Jones show.  Alright, this has got to have some action in it and it did… when they weren’t talking.  They explained the stunts, had audience interaction which is all fine and dandy but again, not what I was looking for.  As I said to Marie (as I’m slapping my palm with the back of my other hand) “I need some Action, Action, Action!!”  Now don’t get me wrong, sounds like I’m complaining but we were having a ball!!  Me making some snotty comments that were just cracking Marie up, we were having a blast.  When we got out of Indian Jones I said I really need some action, some real honest to goodness action!  So we went to the Star Tours!!!  This was pretty cool.  A 3-D ride and it had a touch of the action I was looking for.  Awesome:)  So we did a few other rides, working our way back through the park.  While we were on the Backlot Tour, we found out that the Lights, Motors, Action Stunt show was just finishing up its last show of the day.  Damn it.  Oh well, maybe we’ll get back here another day to check that out.  While we’re walking around, we walk by the Narnia exhibit and I got a little excited, they had the lamppost there!  I watched “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” a million times when I was younger… come to think of it so did Marie.  Anyway I wanted to get my picture taken next to the lamppost.  So Marie takes the pic and we move on.  We ended up walking by it again and this time Marie notices the Narnia sign.  “Oh that’s the lamppost from Narnia!”  So I start laughing... “yeah, why did you think I wanted to get my picture taken next to it?  It’s not just any lamppost:P”  We had a good laugh about that.  So we continue on.  There are 2 rides left we need to do before 7pm, that’s when the Fantasmic show started.  So we head over to the “Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith” which brings us to my absolute most favourite Marie quote of ALL time.  So picture it, we’re in the line up and Marie grabs my hand as we’re moving through the line up.  Marie was a little nervous of getting lost in the crowds so she clamped on to me from time to time.  Anyway, her hands were like ice!  So I say “Marie your hands are some cold!” to which Marie replies, “That’s just the terror setting in.  My body is preparing for death.”  I lost it!  I almost fell to the floor.  She was so serious.  I guess I should mention that Marie is terrified of big rides but god love her, she said if I was going to take her to Disney she would get on all the rides with me, and she did!  This was our first big ride of the trip and it’s the fastest ride in Disney World.  It’s quite the ride!  You’re flying through the tracks with Aerosmith pumping in the background.  Pretty cool.  Marie screamed quite a bit at first but then she starting singing along with “Love in an Elevator” so I knew she was doing alright:)  So when the ride was over, our hair was a bit crazy and we were pretty much blown away.  “Holy shit, that was wicked” sort of comments happening.  This was also the first ride that took your picture at some point, so we went to look at it.  Almost didn’t get it and then said, screw that, we’ll probably never do this again so lets buy the picture!  So glad we did, I still laugh every time I look at it.  The next big ride was the TOWER OF TERROR (said in a deep, ominous, scary voice).  Marie had been dreading this ride since before we got there.  This ride is pretty cool.  Like Drop Zone in Canada’s Wonder Land but much, much worse.  Apparently you won’t get the same ride twice.  You’re in an elevator and they bring you up so many floors and you’re just sitting there, in the dark.  Then you suddenly drop at a pretty fast pace.  Then you speed upwards again, then down, then up, etc etc.  It’s pretty freaky.  And while you’re going up and down, windows open and close so you can see out over the entire park and see how high up you are… if you have your eyes open that is.  I don’t think Marie saw any of that.  The second we started to drop the first time she literally clamped onto my arm with incredible strength and started screaming and didn’t finish til the ride had come to a complete stop.  I spent a lot of time laughing at Marie on these rides.  I did my fair share of screaming but I think I might have laughed just a little bit more.  So this was another ride where you could purchase the ride picture.  The second we saw it, we HAD to have it!   This was also when we decided we would be buying whatever ride pictures that were available.  So far, they have been just too good to pass up. (For those of you who don’t know, all the ride pics we have can be seen in the photo album called “Disney Trip Big Ride Pics”)  So once we finished up with the TOWER OF TERROR, we got some popcorn (first thing we ate since lunch) and headed down to the pond to watch Fantasmic!  It was a fireworks/hologram show and it was amazing.  Lots of fun stuff happened during the show and I think it was pretty long too, like almost an hour.  So after that, we followed the crowds and headed towards our bus stop.  When we got back to the hotel we were starving, surprisingly enough the popcorn just didn’t cut it.  We asked at the front desk where we could find “Good’s, Food To Go”, this was the take out place on the resort.  Good’s turned out to be the best thing ever!!  We basically lived off it for the rest of the trip.  The menu wasn’t huge but the stuff that was on there was awesome.  I had chicken stripes and fries and Rie had a burger and fries.  I also made sure that when I booked the trip, I got a meal plan included.  We had the premium package so we always got a dessert with our meals too.  I had chocolate cake and Marie had a rice crispy treat in the shape of Mickey’s head.  It was wicked.   So that pretty much sums up the first day.  When we got back to our place, we had a little discussion on how much we managed to pack into the day.   We were pretty surprised at how everything was working out so well for us.  Right from the get go, flight arrived on time, room was ready when we got there and it was kick ass, our luggage showed up, bus schedules seemed to be working in our favour, we hadn’t had any long line ups to deal with so far and the food was great.  We basically had an amazing first day.  We could have left right then and went home happy:P

So we got up and headed to the Magic Kingdom.  We get to the park just after opening and the place is packed.  Get in through the gates and right away we see Cinderella’s castle.  It was so retarded, standing there, actually looking at that castle.  We took a moment and moved on:P  It just so happened that Pluto, Daisy and Chip & Dale were hanging out signing autographs.  We, of course, get in line. Marie wanted her picture taken with as many characters as possible.  Unfortunately they went on break before we hit the front of the line, so we left.  Figured we were wasting valuable time.  Luckily there was a lesser known character just over to the side… J. Worthington Foulfellow from Pinocchio.   Sly looking devil:)  We of course giggled when we were getting our picture taken… like 6 year olds.  I tell you the second you walk into that place you walk through a time machine and you’re just a silly kid again.  It’s quite the feeling.  Anyway so we start our way up Main Street with the castle getting bigger and bigger.  Lots more pics taken.  By that time it was after 10 I think and we had dinner reservations with Winnie the Pooh and friends at 12:45 (an appointment we could not be late for) so we figure we should soon hit some rides.  When you’re at Cinderella’s castle you’re basically in the middle of the Magic Kingdom, so we picked a direction and went with it.  We saw this squirrel running across the path, ah cute!  What does he have?  Oh it’s a bag of trail mix!  One of the workers there said that he grabs something everyday from the snack cart.  It was pretty cute.  SO we continue on our way and the first place we hits (which I might add was on the list) The Hall of Presidents.  Holy mother of god, hold me back!!  Thank god there isn’t a line!  I have to get in to see this!  Hopefully you’ve picked up on the mounds of sarcasm.  Anyway, Marie insisted on doing this one, “it’s on the list, we have to do it!” so of course we went in.  It was alright, pics of the presidents, the presidential seal on the floor and all.  5 mins and we’re outta here, sweet!  No wait.  There’s a show.  Oh god.  20 minutes I’ll never ever get back.  If there is a way to punish a child in the Magic Kingdom, make them sit through the Hall of Presidents show.  It’ll drain the life right out of them.  So when we get out, I once again reminded Marie of my “Action, Action, Action” requirements and we quickly moved on to Splash Mountain.  We thought this one was going to be pretty quick, surprisingly it was not.  Takes maybe 20 minutes to do the whole ride!  The big drop is at the end but there’s a ride to get up to the top which was pretty cool.  Definitely a ride to take in.  So then we hit another roller coaster and the Swiss Family Treehouse and by then it was getting pretty close to our lunch reservations and Marie did not want to be late so we headed over to the Crystal Palace to check in.  It was a buffet, and pretty good!  We got to meet Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger!!  I was pretty psyched to get my picture taken with Tigger, and Marie was over the top to get her pic taken with Eeyore.  We think Tigger might have been under supervision or at least that’s what we wanted to believe.  There was a story in the news about Tigger hitting some kid a few weeks before we got there so we took his escort to be his guard:P  Maybe he was new and needed to be shown the route (oh yes they had a definite route through the restaurant), who knows.  We like the supervision story best though:)  Anyway after lunch we get back at it again and do some more rides.  Stitches Great Escape was interesting… and I’ll leave it at that.  Space Mountain was friggin awesome!  We sat 4 singles in a space ship.  Marie could not handle being in the front so we switched out:P  It was pretty freaky though, starts off with the big drop and you’re in the dark the whole time.  A definite must do!!  {Side note:  this ride wasn’t on the list… I lost faith in the list after the Great Movie ride but we did just about everything on it regardless.  I think Gloria and I have very different ideas of fun times in theme parks}.  We also did the Tomorrowland Transit Authority ride, which is a great way to take a breather and it goes all around Tomorrowland, including inside the housing of Space Mountain, you see the space ships going around!  I wasn’t all that excited about doing it but Marie wanted to so we did and it was definitely worth it.  I’d put it on the list.  While we were going around I saw “Barnstormer at Goofy's Wiseacre Farm” This ride looked awesome.  We had to do this one.  So after we did the Buzz Light Year ride (which was a kids ride but lots of fun) we got in line for the Goofy ride.  We waited.  We got on.  Oh this is going to be good.  Get seated, start to move and oh wait the ride is over.  Seriously, it took about 30 seconds from start to finish, which cracked us up.  We barely made it down the steps off the ride we were laughing so much.  Just looked like it should have been a lot more to that ride but it was a great source of entertainment for us so that was good.  It was at this point when we hit Toontown, where Mickey and Minnie live.  We got to go through their houses which was pretty cool.   We got to meet Goofy, Minnie and Pluto too.  The funniest thing was watching Pluto sign autographs.  Its not going to come off quite as funny, I’ll try but I think this is definitely one of those “you just got to be there” type of things.  So you can picture Pluto I’m assuming and know where his eyes and snout are… well when he goes to sign someone’s book he puts the book up on his snout and signs it like that.  K see, that doesn’t sound funny at all but it is.  Trust me.  I think there’s a pic there somewhere in the trip pics.  Just be sure to notice it if you ever go there.  Cracked us up every time we saw him do it.  After that we got to go meet the big man, err, mouse himself... MICKEY!!  He was in a spot all to himself and the line up moved really quick.  He was pretty cool, and very friendly:P  Oh I should also mention that Marie was loving the characters, cuddled right up to them when she’d get her pic taken.  It was pretty funny sometimes, you could tell the characters were afraid:)

Once we left Toontown, we stopped for a water break.  I was like the enforcer and made Marie drink her entire bottle of water… we don’t need any dehydration, thanks.  I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet but the weather was friggin gorgeous when we were there… in the mid-20’s everyday, so come 3:00 the place was sweltering.  Anyway after that we went to do some more rides before the fireworks show at 6:45.  We took in the 3-D show, that was wicked!!  This one really got Marie going and I think it was at this one she decided she loves 3-D shows.  We had to do whatever ones we could in the other parks, which was fine by meJ  We did the Snow White and Peter Pan rides too, which were really cool.  You could tell they were older rides but I must say very entertaining.  The longest wait time in any line on the entire trip was for Peter Pan.  You sail through the story in a ship so, yeah, it was worth the wait.  We did a couple more rides then headed to the bridge that goes to Tomorrowland.  Thanks to Gloria we knew this was the best place to see the fireworks.  Wanna know why?  Of course you do!  Well it might be because on that bridge, shortly after the fireworks starts, Tinkerbell comes friggin flying out of the castle and goes right over that bridge!!  It was deadly!!!  The fireworks shows, all of them, in general were amazing but this one hit me and Rie pretty hard.  I think it was because at that point, when we’re standing there, listening to a song about how all your dreams can come true, watching these amazing fireworks explode around Cinderella’s castle, that we realized we made it there.  We finally got to go to Disney World after all these years of talking about it.