Everybody has a story

My usual Thursday afternoon bus ride had a slight twist yesterday. I often pass the time sleeping, reading, or listening to the radio, but once in a while, the person I am sitting next to exchanges a few words and the conversation doesn't end, and so continues on in one form or another until we arrive. Yesterday, I was sitting next to a lovely Francophone woman who was going home to Repentigny after visiting her grown daughter in Outaouais. We spoke on and off the whole bus ride, mostly about the weather, about whether she'd catch her connecting bus or whether we'd get to Berri on time, about where she lived, about her niece and my niece. In short, lots of small talk.
At one point, our conversation turned to the importance of a positive outlook. How some people manage to get really upset about small things and how we really rarely experience catastrophe's in this part of the world, and so really, we ought to stay relatively calm when we're faced with the small "not good" situations that we're sometimes faced with.
Until this point, the main reason we kept speaking was not because the conversation was particularly interesting, but to pass the time (for her, I suspect) and to get some French practice, for me. A few minutes later, she told me two things: One, her husband had died 7 years ago from prostate cancer that had quickly spread to other parts of his body, and two, she had lived with epilepsy until the age of 42. She'd had three brain surgeries, here was the scar on her head, and she showed me a minor mark which I'd been looking straight at most of the bus ride without noticing anything was there, and was now fully cured and needed no more medication. Her husband had taken such good care of her for close to 20 years, that when he'd become sick, it was as simple as being her turn to take care of him.
The rest of the way home I thought about my own health. My biggest issue is my food restrictions, and honestly, everyday I realize how tiny something like that is. I have never known catastrophe, but this woman had faced difficulties I only imagine. It was very eye-opening.

Shopping in my mother's closet

There is massive "summer cleaning" happening at my parents' place in Ottawa. Left with a huge pile of stuff to store/get rid of from my sister's house now that she is in Dubai, we, or rather they, are going through everything and trying to get rid of what can be gotten rid of to make space for new storage. My instant coffee supply has been instantly replenished. I also now have new scarves (fabulous, I might add), a new skirt, and a new pair of pants, courtesy of some boxes and my mother's closet. I talk to my Little Angela on the phone every two or three days. She tells me every time, as if I don't already know, "Khalto Nonno, I'm in the Emirates." Sometimes, her voice is excited when she says this, other times, it's tinged with sadness. It's hard for a two-year old to understand moving across the world. Exhibit A: a conversation that took place with her mother a couple of days ago (translated from Arabic to English for your benefit below):
"Mama, I want to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house."
"We can't sweetie. They're in Ottawa. It's too far away."
"No it's not. It's close." A pause. "Sacramento's far."
Sacramento is where my other little angels and angela live, with my eldest sister. Everything is relative.
Speaking of little angels, the last few months I've been savouring every last moment with them before they left when I came to Ottawa, but now I focus on some of the big angels in my life. My parents really, truly are angelic. They're brave, they're generous, they're giving, they're impossibly hardworking, they're not tireless, but they don't quit a moment before their bodies just can't take it anymore from pure exhaustion. They are such beautiful, beautiful people, and while it can be tiring to get up at 4:30 a.m. on Tuesdays to catch my bus, and while I miss M insanely for those 2.5 days we're in different cities, this is an atypical kind of blessing I have, to spend such long moments alone together with my parents as a grown woman, to have the great conversations we have so often, to find myself shopping in my mother's closet, kissing my father's cheeks after sunset prayer, eating leftovers together. To bond.

Air Canada Evil

Not enough time to write about this last week in the middle of heading back to Montreal on Thursday night and leaving for camp on Friday afternoon, but what follows is an account of Wednesday night's adventure with my sister's trip to Dubai.
I left work early on Wednesday to see her and the little angels off, along with my parents. We packed into the van (6 people and 9 huge pieces of luggage, plus hand bags, so when I say packed I really mean it) and drove to the Ottawa airport. By the time we got there, there was a torrential downpour that lasted for about 20 minutes.
My sister's flight was at 6 p.m. This was at 3:30. Her itinerary was essentially Ottawa-TO, TO-Dubai. After getting her bags through and saying some VERY VERY VERY tearful goodbyes, my sister and the little angels went through security, and my parents and I headed back up to the top floor where we could watch her gate until she boarded. This was at 5.
(An aside: Little Angela and I's conversation as I hugged her at security.

• Her: Nonno, why are you so sad?
• Me (with tears streaming down my face and a total wreck: I'm not sad, honey, I'm just a bit emotional because I won't see you again until next summer.
• Her (with a quizzical look on her face): okay.
• Me: Can I get a kiss?
• She kisses my right cheek
• Me: and another one
• She kisses my left cheek
• Me: now let me kiss you.
• And as I do, with the little puddles of tears that have gathered over my lips, she waits politely and then wipes my kisses away with the back of her hands...)

Here is the Cole's Notes version of the story: At 6:45, a plane leaves from my sister's gate and she doesn't get on it. We check the screens with the flight information. It says this is my sisters' plane that's just departed. We don't understand. Her flight was supposed to be at 6 but she won't get on this flight. At 7:15 a second flight leaves and again she doesn't board. We page her and have her call us. She explains that the plane that left at 6:45 was the 4 p.m. plane and that they won't let her take a different plane because her baggage is already checked to the 6 p.m. flight which is now seriously late and may not make it in time for the connection.
At 7:50 they finally go through the gate and disappear onto the plane. We watch the plane take off at 8. We go home. I start crying all over again while I pick up my Little Angela's blocks from the floor and start putting them away. We won't be playing with these again before next summer. We pray our sunset prayer. We sit and chat. The phone rings. It's my sister. The Dubai flight is gone without her. The next one isn't until Friday night.
And what does Air Canada offer her in the meantime? A hotel, maybe, for the next two days? No. How about a place to store her luggage in the airport for the next two days? Also no. Okay, okay, well at least they're going to send someone down with her to the luggage carousel to help carry her 9 BAGS, seeing as how she has the Little Angels with her and they're not exactly Little Angels at 10 p.m. after being strapped into strollers/car seats/plane seats since 2:30 in the afternoon, right? No. They won't be doing that either.
We call my parents-in-law who live in TO. They are wonderful and leave for the airport immediately to pick her up. She stays with them for the next two days, and on Friday night, while we're at camp, she boards her Dubai flight.
She's safely in her new house now. The kids are happy, and they're all together again. It just took an extra two days, that's all.

10 Things I've Learned from my Weekly Commute

1. Greyhound / Voyageur has more than one model of bus. Some are perfect for sleeping - i.e. the headrests are at the right height for a shorty like myself and the chairs lean back a good amount - and have the better overhead compartments where it's easy to put your bags, and others, well, really aren't. Best to pray for the "good for sleeping" buses and to keep a good book on you for the "bad for sleeping" ones.
2. My laptop battery really does have a 2 hour lifespan.
3. You can get good reception of CBC Radio 1 in Montreal until about halfway to Ottawa, but the reverse is not true.
4. If you're planning to sleep on the bus, don't act friendly to the person sitting next to you. Any act of friendliness, no matter how mild, may be misconstrued as an invitation to talk for the entire trip, at which point you will have lost valuable sleep time.
5. The Ottawa bus station (on Catherine ave.) has a horrible selection of potato chips. They're too salty, too flavoured, and too greasy. If you really want chips, pick them up before you get to the bus station.
6. The Montreal bus station's store is not open at 5:30 a.m., so bring your own breakfast/snacks if you want to eat before 8 a.m.
7. More people take the bus as the weather gets nicer. Summer will be packed.
8. If you sleep without bringing a travel pillow, expect a terrible crink in your neck.
9. Buy the round trip Ottawa-Montreal ten-pack from Ottawa, not Montreal, and save about $35 because Quebec applies an extra tax to your tickets. and last,
10. People in a state of travel are all slightly anxious, and usually eager to smile or talk. Somehow, while we're in between homes, we all want one more friend, one more conversation, one more connection, even if that distance is a minor or routine one.

Other Amazing "Speltisies"

That's my new word for "things made with spelt flour" - and the latest in this wonderful addition (you remember the Spelt Biscotti of last Toronto visit?) are little spelt pesto rolls... In T.O. this weekend for a good friend's wedding and a visit with my husbands family, and you cannot even begin to understand how truly delicious these things are. I opened the bag. I finished the bag. In one sitting. That's all there is to it.
My parents-in-law have also discovered spelt sesame sticks. For all you Egyptians out there, this is essentially "bo'somat" a.k.a. that totally fabulous thing you have with your tea. I'm seriously considering just up and moving to T.O.

The Slippery Digital Slope

1- I used to write in a journal, not "dear diary" style or anything of that sort, but the kind of poems that end up on this site every so often, and other writing that's either too terrible or too private to share. I keep it in my overstuffed purse and have kept one there (or in my school bag back in high school and university) since the ninth grade, in case the mood should move me and I should be inspired to put something down.

For maybe 6 or 7 months, I haven't put anything down in my journal except maybe a phone number or directions. It's become more like a notepad than a place for writing... and I miss it.

2- My old cell phone was a pay-as-you go plan, essentially used to say "Baba, I'll be at the bus station in 25 minutes" after a late class, or "Mama, was it walnuts or hazelnuts you wanted me to pick up from Bulk Barn". My new cell phone is a full-fledged, long term plan with lots of minutes and unlimited talk and text to "my 5" which I used to make fun of endlessly before I signed up for the same thing.

3- I had a laptop at work a few years ago before switching jobs, but I rarely used it and stuck instead to my trusty, old Windows XP Service Pack 1 machine for all my computing needs at home. When I switched to my "new" job about 2 years ago, I went laptop-less until about 3 months ago, when I decided to buy one for my new, mobile, double-citied life.

4- Around that same time, I got a new mp3 player which also happened to play FM Radio, so now I can listen to my beloved CBC Radio in transit.

I would have scoffed before at getting internet access wherever I was, but now that I can listen to CBC anywhere, and make endless phone calls on the Greyhound between Montreal and Ottawa, I'm practically itching to be able to check anything from anywhere. But here's the catch: I don't need to. I sit at work for 8 hours with internet at my finger tips. Depending on the day of the week, I can check the internet either 1 or 3 hours after leaving my office. That's barely any time to be "un-plugged" but I think I'm hooked.
My solution is to slow down, get a bit more "disconnected" and read solid, physical, tangible books or my Quran on my bus rides... The physical world is actually a fabulous place, and for all the advantages of constant connection, it's nice to stop and notice what's actually around us once in a while. There's something to be said for having access to too much data and not enough information, and that's what I'm afraid the digital age has done to some, including myself...

Spelt Biscotti (City Trotting)

The last 4 days, in bullet-form:

• bus to Montreal from Ottawa on Thursday night
• drive to Richmond Hill, via Kingston on Friday (morning / afternoon)
• spend the bulk of the weekend in Richmond Hill with my second family
• drive to Montreal via Kingston on Sunday (morning / afternoon)
• attend one of M's best friend's Katb Kitab's last night

And tomorrow, it's back to Ottawa. I think I'm actually getting really good at this, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief to discover that M and I both LOVE road trips, so we got to and from his parents' place and back home quite happily. Now about his parents' place, can I just say I'm feeling very, very loved? I brought my usual supply of spelt bread as back up (as I do when I'm travelling anywhere, since it's not always available or I don't know if I'll have a chance to shop, or whatever) and discovered that they had stocked their pantry with a) organic spelt bread, b)Kamut raisin bread, c)multiple types of goat feta cheese d) spelt penne, and e)SPELT BISCOTTI!!!

I have never in my life tasted spelt biscotti before, but it's fabulous, and the coffee/tea-lover in me was just so incredibly pleased to have something to dip into my hot drink and nibble on. (Heheh, I'm going to have to pick up the exercise regime again though...)

And another thing. I can now play Risk. I may not have achieved world domination this time around, but I'd like to think I learned a thing or two for next time. All in all, a wonderful weekend and well-refreshed for tomorrow (Don't you just LOVE four-day weeks?)