Summer Lovin

Summer has arrived to Montreal, or so it seems at least. Last week the city felt like a sauna. It was the hottest weather I've ever felt in Canada & it's only May. I'm told it will only get hotter & more humid so now I'm not entirely sure what I've signed myself up for.  I will, thankfully, be taking a two and a half week break to head back to the dry heat of the homeland. Yes, I am going home for some Stampeding, among other things. A second thing I should be thankful for this summer is the AC in my new apartment. Yes, folks, I found myself a new apartment so you needn't fret about me living on the street on setting up a permanent cot in the lifeguard office. And yes, it has AC - an almost foreign concept to me. No one has air conditioning in AB, at least no one I know. So, I'd kind of laughed it off as an unnecessary perk when I signed the lease. That is until last week when I thought I was going to melt. Our current apartment was a bit of a sweatbox. & not just because it doesn't have AC. Despite the rest of its lovely features, it lacks 2 sets of screens. I am lucky enough to be the proud owner of one of the screen-less windows. The other is in the living room. Sorry, apartment, I still love you, but this is one of your serious downfalls. I know this seems slightly absurd, but I'm fairly certain our landlord has just forgotten about these two missing screens. In fact, I distinctly recall him saying he'd put them in come spring. but now that we've told him we're leaving, I feel awkward bringing up the oversight. It's silly, I know, but I really didn't think we'd hit 38 degrees before Canada day, never mind in May! But enough about my current apartment. Let's talk about my new one, as I'm sure you're all dying to hear about it.

It's 3 or 4 blocks closer to both workplaces & school. So now, I can cut my 20 minute routine down to 15 minutes for Starbucks in the morning OR I can make myself presentable with makeup perhaps from time to time (ok, let's not kid ourselves here, we all know I'll never choose makeup over sleep at 5:45am). It's above a Tim Hortons (which at first seems unappealing, but brekkie on my way to the Y? yes, I'll have time now). The building isn't anything special from the outside, but the interior is newly renovated & has some pretty high tech security. The landlord seems to be a doll, as well. My apartment itself, is on the 4th floor. It's a 2 1/2 (in the rest of Canada we'd call it a bachelor) & everything it is is brand new. It's been totally renovated - hardwood floors, new appliances, new tile bathroom. & it has a patio! All in all, it's a pretty sweet place, exactly where I wanted. Crisis averted.

& it only took me a month and a half to find it.

Lyssa is up early baking cheese buns and strawberry-rhubarb pie :)

Alanna officially has a place to live come July 1! & it's a better than decent place at that. Such a relief after my (overly) melodramatic meltdown on Tuesday night.

A Picture Tells A Thousand Words

At least that's what they say, & sometimes my photos seem to do the talking a little bit better than my words. I guess I'll have to work on that. Nevertheless, here are the photos I promised from the night the Habs won & I took my flashy camera for a walk down to Crescent. Unless you're living under a rock, I'm sure you're aware that the Habs won the semi-final series against the Penguins last week as well & Montréal was once again a crazy (awesome) place to be. The roomie, the boyfriend & I joined the revellers briefly, but managed to avoid tear gas & the looting. There was however a car set on fire (& burnt to a crisp) near our street. Exciting?

First Round: 

               The street wasn't closed off during the first round. Intersection of Guy & St Catharine's.  

Car surfing is always safe

Round 2:

st catharine's in front of the faubourg. 

making our way through the crowd as we approach crescent

sea of people at crescent

& to cap off the evening: slightly difficult to see burnt car.

close encounters

The only thing more awkward than running into an ex is running into an ex's mother ... and she's naked.

Alanna had to have her iPod touch restored to the factory settings. This wouldn't matter for most people, but I took a bunch of music from friends' computers in Calgary....& I live in Mtl now....downloading spree?

baby talk

So I went back to my old job for the summer, doing rehab-therapy with kiddos, and in addition to assuming my old clientele I've also been assigned a ... gasp ... infant. Well, he's 18 months. Legally this qualifies him as an infant, although I don't know how he'd be characterized if I took like a census or something. Anyway. For 2 hours every afternoon I feel so awkward and, frankly, a little terrified. And really, he's the most complacent, happy thing that ever was. But I'm with him in this closet of a nursery - thank goodness the mother doesn't hover - and the whole time I'm hyper self-conscious. Should I be always chattering? What's the appropriate work-to-play ratio? And how do you play with a baby, really, anyway? Getting the work part done isn't too much trouble, although it feels mean and a little wrong sometimes to wheedle his fist out of a death grip or to make him roll onto his front when every time his one little arm gets pinned under his body and he mashes his face into the carpet.

He drools like Beethoven, too. (Dog, not composer .... Well, maybe composer, you never know.)

Everyone thinks it's hilarious that I'm afraid of babies. It's not irrational. It's not like I think they'll attack me or something, pull out special infant krav maga. I'm just unfamiliar with them. They're foreign to me, like a wallaby or a babushka'd grandmother fresh from the old country. If anyone gave me either of these to manage for an afternoon I'd feel equally anxious and unfit. It's not my fault I've never been baby-proofed.

If one ever comes out of me I won't be afraid of it, right? (... Or will I be more afraid on account of its violence? Hm.)