calendaRio February 2010

The Vancouver 2010 Olympics have got me all excited. I wish I were there to watch them in person. As it stands now, I am completely dependent on the wonderful interwebs for coverage. But that's OK, they have never let me down before.

I love the Winter Olympics, the figure skating(!!!), the skiing, the crazy events like the biathlon and ones that my family can't seem to get enough of, namely curling. I cannot wait to watch the opening ceremonies to see the spectacle of it all and to see what they decide to show of Canada and Vancouver. It's a beautiful bit of country over there and these games should showcase it wonderfully.

Portage Avenue in Winnipeg is possibly one of the oldest and most important thoroughfares in the city. Originally carved out of wide open prairies by Red River ox carts, Portage Avenue is now the first picture that comes to mind when I think of downtown Winnipeg, especially during the holidays. I have spent many freezing nights waiting for buses along this avenue and at Christmas I love to take a drive downtown along Portage to check out the lights. I took this video last night on the way home from watching the Olympic Torch arrive in Winnipeg. The streets are uncharacteristically dry and free of snow for this time of year, but it was still freezing and beautiful.

The Start of a New Year

After two and a half years of being away from my Mom and my sister for the holidays, I decided to come back to Winnipeg to spend Christmas and New Years with them and our family. My visit was much overdue and I have enjoyed every minute of it, even the nights that it has been -30 C and my nose hairs have frozen (too much info? Too bad). Slowly, the three of us have fallen back into old habits and old routines, like drinking tea and watching movies curled up under blankets in the basement late at night. I feel like I am once again a part of a very special unit of three, something that I have missed very much since I began to live in Ensenada, in a way that is a bit difficult to explain but probably very familiar to many people who have found themselves in similar situations.

From time to time, it's tough to live so far away. Inevitably you miss out on a lot; events like family dinners, birthday get-togethers, small milestones and random stories that become inside jokes no longer include you. While living far away from family is not necessarily new to me, at this point in my life, it certainly means something different. That veil that all kids and adolescents swear doesn't cloud their vision of the world has certainly become thinner since I left Winnipeg to live in Ensenada. My perspective has shifted in a such subtle way that I barely noticed it was happening until it did. I suppose that is what happens as you get older. The categories that you once clung to: child, adolescent, young adult and adult stop existing in the same way. You get to a point and it becomes more fluid and the transitions between phases become less noticeable. In any case, I have felt a shift as of late and it has become that much more important to me to keep in touch with my family, my aunts, uncles, cousins and close friends. In part, that shift has made this trip very special to me.

And yet, right now my life is in Ensenada because for the past two and a half years I have been lucky enough to spend it with the most wonderful person. He challenges me to be better and yet he allows me to relax and be myself. We started off this year in different countries, which is a bit ironic to me and something that I hope never happens again, but we'll be back to sharing our little life together soon. And while I miss him so very much, I will continue to enjoy this special time with my family before things begin to shift yet again.

The Epic Kitchen String Game: Suki vs. Rio

My very first pet was a gray tabby cat that I found hiding underneath a car in the rain when I was about 5 years old. I took her home and named her "Meow". Why you ask? Because I wanted her to be able to say her own name. The logic made sense at the time, but now that I think of it, I sound like a nutbar. In any case, Meow was the best cat. We got along so well that I naturally assumed all cats were gracious, wonderful beings who were tolerant and kind to everyone. It took many failed pet cats over the years to gradually change my mind. I eventually came to the conclusion that cats are independent, selfish beings who only want what they want when they want it and will sometimes allow you to pet them. I remember saying to Evaristo, who by the way loves cats and is a huge cat person, "You know, we should totally get a cat just so that we could have a live-in source of entertainment".

When Kuma came to stay, my expectations were pretty low. I really didn't think that I could care for a cat as much as I could care for dog. I eventually decided that I shouldn't have any expectations of Kuma and that I should just enjoy her for what she is. As I did, I started to notice that cats communicate entirely differently then dogs—duh. Well, obviously, but notice that I didn't say cats communicate less than dogs; I just said differently. Once I started from scratch with Kuma, I couldn't believe how much she was communicating. Gestures or movements that wouldn't have caught my attention before were now speaking volumes.

Her kittens have taught me so much more. They are the sweetest things in the world and the cats that I always wanted. Once you figure out how a cat communicates, things gets really easy. You can even play games. Heck, you can even match a cat to a dog in a game and see who wins (put money on the dog, unless you feel the cat is really on his or her game). Evaristo and I did just that the other night when we matched Suki up to Rio in the Epic Kitchen String Game.

So, a little background on the Epic Kitchen String Game. To play you will require a long piece of sturdy string. If your boyfriend is obsessed with string and you often find him collecting random pieces of string which he then plays "knots" with for hours on end, then getting a hold of a sturdy piece of string should be pretty straightforward. You'll need to tie the string to a fixture on the ceiling so that it hangs down and is at nose level with your competitors. Tie a Turk's Head knot (re: boyfriend) on the end of the string. After your competitors have become intrigued by the string/knot combo, set them up and let them lose! First one to catch the knot gets a point. Play to 3. Go!

The Epic Kitchen String Game from Aguacate47 on Vimeo.

How We Lost the War

There are a lot of things that I really like about our house, but the one thing I can't stand is the carpet. It's old and there are stains on it that have been there since before we moved in. It's difficult to keep clean and it has always looked a bit dingy. When I first saw it, I immediately wanted to rip it up, but the floor beneath needs A LOT of work to just make it livable. In any case, the entire house is carpeted, except for the kitchen, which is were the animals have their beds. The kitchen has its own door that leads to the yard and a window that is always left open. Rio quickly learned how to open the kitchen door and happily goes in and out as he pleases. The cats prefer to use the window.

Since moving to our little blue house in 2007, Evaristo and I have had the rule that our animals can't step on the carpet. The reasons for this rule are important and I respect them. So, as much as I would have liked the animals to hang out with us in the living room, they were resigned to hang out in the kitchen, close to us but not near enough to sit on your lap or snuggle up to your feet. But don't think they were deprived of attention. Oh no. Far from it.

Getting the animals to follow the ONE RULE, was rather simple at first as we only had Rio. After adopting Kuma, it was a bit more challenging but we made it work surprisingly well. After the kittens were born, we realized that we are most certainly outnumbered and we started having some difficulties enforcing the no carpet rule. However, we managed well up until about two weeks ago when we started waking up to this:

How in the world can you enforce a rule when you have Suki waking you up in the morning purring like a tractor because she wants to snuggle and be petted? You can't. It's impossible. And if Suki can be there, why not Momo? He's always a few steps behind everyone anyway (he's a bit on the slow side). Sure enough, Momo would show up not much later and find a nice little spot in the blankets to curl up in. And if the rugrats were there, then why not Kuma, who quickly took advantage of our lowered defenses to claim her favorite spot in our closet. And if all the cats were there, it would be down right unjust to exclude Rio, the ONLY one who has ever consistently followed every rule without fail. So we quickly realized that what had once been our room, was now the place to be in the mornings: three cats, one dog and the two of us quietly dozing in our bed as the sun came up. The mornings quickly turned into afternoons, which quickly turned into ALL THE TIME. Last night we officially raised the white flag and gave in. The fuzzy ones have taken over. Rio is currently asleep on my feet as I write this, Kuma is next to me on a chair, Suki is asleep on my lap and Momo has decided that right next to Rio is where he would like to be. Well done, quadrupeds, you have won.