Road Trip Anyone?

I'm not even quite sure how to begin this entry as my brain's swarming with so many things, particularly this week. I don't even have a title as I write this so be warned, there's bound to be extensive babbling broken up by some pictures.

I think the reality of being a 30 something singleton in a small, sleepy community that they have the nerve to label a city has hit home. From comments I've heard back, some of you didn't realise that Scott and I have been broken up for a couple of months. Don't worry, it's a good and mutual thing, we make better friends than boyfriend and girlfriend. But his leaving has made me realise that life as a single person on the Miramichi leaves something to be desired. Let's see, my options are; 1) Young men that like to play video games, 2) Married men or those that are in a relationship, 3) Someone who's gay or bi, 4) Someone that's strung out on drugs and spending their spare time at the methodone clinic. Needless to say, none of the above are relationships I'm interested in persuing!

I know I've spent five years travelling abroad but being back home has brought the reality back as to why. I've spent the last week trying to get some brainstorming done for a roadtrip. Thoughts of a trip to Ontario to get to see Matt, Brian and Brent seemed like a great idea until the voice of reality (otherwise known as Darcy) intervened. Yup, it could get a little costly 'cause no matter how much we kid ourselves, we're not going there without wanting to do, "things." We're also working very hard at getting a trip in to Gornish to see Coll and Dan but storms and days off keep rearing their twisted heads. We thought that during a trip to Gornish we could head over to Crabbe Mountain to participate in a little bit of skiing but Liss and her fear of heights don't make for a good ski trip. Of course, any time I'm ever skiing it's take a couple of runs then head to the lodge for a few cups of courage. I don't think Liss'd be real happy about being abandoned in the lodge all day by herself though. Wanna keep her company Coll?

So the best I could come up with was Italy. Needless to say, my friends won't be accompanying me on this, ummm, roadtrip but it's somewhere I've always been drawn to. My dating record has paired me up with three different Italian men (love them) and I love the food so no major culture shock. Not to mention the beauty of the place. It's a win-win situation, right?

Please don't get me wrong, I love all my friends dearly and any girl would thank her lucky stars to have been so blessed with such a wonderful motley crue for entertainment. But there has got to be more to life than this. I've come to the conclusion that we're going to have to take all the single women on the Miramichi (belive me, with the Alberta exodus, there's lots of us) and meet the Anchorage men somehow. I guarantee you, the ratio's got to be similar.

What does one do in the meantime for entertainment? Well, I do manage to find some but winter on the east coast can leave one limited which is why not so many blog entries in the last few weeks. One thing I did manage to do last weekend (even though I was feeling a little under the weather) was have a party with my friend Caprice whom I met while working at ICT. She's having a breast reduction surgery on the first of february so in true Caprice fashion, she had a going away party for, "The girls."



Another thing that has given me a great source of entertainment is the Skidd's animals. I've always tried taking pictures of their cat Teddy but my focus would never work on him, probably because of all his hair, where does it begin? My new camera finally enables me to get decent pictures of him. So now I present to you, the many faces of, "Teddy..."

In this first one, Liss opened a can of tuna. I like this one 'cause it shows how truly big he is...



In this one, he's examining the contents up close...



This one he's rolling around and half hanging off the chair. He's so social and loves sitting at the kitchen table with us...



Here all he wants is food and he'll even take it out of the dog's dishes. Poor starvin' thing....



And of course, no Skidd pet pictures would be complete without a picture of Jake. When we say he's a lap dog, we're not kidding. Here he is in my lap...



Just for fun, I thought I'd include some videos as picture don't truly capture the essence that is, "Jake." In this video, Jake and Kate have to go pee. We know what they want but it's still fun torturing them. Jake's so vocal when he gets all worked up. Even Kate's carrying on but I love how they're both jumping around. In this video, we're torturing Jake over the squirrels. Yup, he is a bird dog but he seems to like squirrels too. I love how it sounds like he's answering me back, you can almost hear the words.

We've also had a co-op student that joined us from MVHS. Sherrie usually takes one kid in a semester. Katie, our girl this year, really hit it off and has actually gotten accepted to hairstyling this fall. Our association makes tough regulations, so tough that we couldn't even let the poor girl do shampoos. I'm sure the days got long for her as there's only so much hair you can sweep, towels you can fold and observing you can do. I asked her if she actually learned something. She said she learned that it was something she'd like to do for a living. That's good enough for me. She was so sweet and funny to have around, miss you Katie...

l-r- Me, Katie, Ashley



I would have to say, the most entertainment I've seen the last few weeks was a curling funspiel that Marybeth got Liss, Darcy, Kari and Nick signed up for. I'll let Liss give more details on it but I know one thing, I sure wish I didn't have to work that day as it looked like lots of fun. Instead I got to see them play their last game, go back to their place while they got freshened up and go witness some of the most *ahem* interesting karaoke I've seen in a long time. The Dawson boys had nothing on some of these numbskulls.

Before karaoke could get under way, we had to sit through the awarding of the prizes. Marybeth did a great job as MC (think we have some video of it on her camera, wonder if she found it yet?) and everybody got to go home with something. Nick practically got a standing ovation at one point. They drew names out of hats for the remainder of people and his was one of the first names drawn. After twenty more names were called and he still hadn't found anything, we began to wonder. Finally he trundles back over with a $5 gift certificate for Tim Horton's, proclaiming he already had everything else. By this point, everyone else had noticed his lack of decision making as well.

The rest of the crew got some interesting prizes. Liss came back with a hot pink rubbermaid container that may be the first thing that Darcy doesn't initial, "D.Skidd." Good thinking Liss. Kari and Darcy also come out with some cool aluminum stools. You can never have too many places to cop a squat, I guess.

"Gordioke Karaoke," was in town to put together the entertainment portion. I must say though, I have to agree with, "Garioke Karaoke," -Kari as it seems to roll off the tongue so much easier. With such hits as, "Staying Alive," (don't worry Liss, vid's deleted) and, "Twist," it was almost like I was at a wedding. But when three doctors got up there to sing, "Summer of 69," totally out of key, we knew it was time to go home. Thank goodness Mark (Liss' Dad) arrived when he did as I think I would have been walking home from French Fort Cove. Hey Mark, have I said, "Thank You," yet?

A few random pictures as we're sitting around the table. I had about 5 seconds to prepare for this picture Darcy took. I'm still trying to heed the warning, "Don't forget to smile," which is the warning I got after posting the last few blackmail pictures of them. Future note to self, don't take it to the opposite extreme...



Not sure if Marybeth finally discovered all the pictures/videos on her camera here or not but I like how her and Darcy are framing the dancefloor...



I must say, Nick has now become my favourite candid subject as it seems that every picture the boy takes is hilarious. In this picture, Kari's in the middle of telling him something, "naughty." They still won't tell us what it was though...



I can't for the life of me remember what song was playing here but with this picture, I don't think it really matters...



With this next picture, upon review later in the evening, we've now dubbed Kari with the title, "face of vogue optical." I love this picture of the three of them as it sums up how good of a time we had...



This next picture we tossed around whether to post or not as we don't want to hurt anyone but it was a big thing for all of us so I feel it should be included. Winston did this in memory of Marilyn and it was beautiful, as emotional as it was. Every time Liss threw her rock, she did well with it...



I guess when you put it all out in words and pictures, life on the Miramichi isn't totally boring, definately monotonous by times yes but life is what you make it. I guess I'm just going to have to suck it up for awhile and hope that maybe it's just the winter blues as it's definately winter here now. We've already gotten more snow now than we had all year last winter. I love the snow though so that's not it.



In the meantime, I'm going to try going back to volleyball on mondays and wednesdays in hopes that it'll get me through the dolldrums.

At least Newcastle's closer than Italy and I don't have to pack a suitcase.

'Til next time...