I am at an interesting place right now.  I have had such an exciting couple of months, and it just keeps getting bigger!!  I want to share, but it is hard to even decide where to begin.  It might be a good idea to go back to the first week in November, and move forward.  I am not a huge believer in rules, as you may have gathered, but chronological order seems to be the smart way to, at least attempt, to set my ramblings in to a semblance of order.

I spent the first week of November back home.  I have lived in Alberta for 8 years now, but Nova Scotia/New Brunswick, that’s home.  If I live the rest of my life here, and they have to scatter my ashes in this place, I will never feel like this is “home”.  To that end, I make sure I go back East at least twice a year, religiously.  Since my granddaughter was born, the first week of November, last year, my timings have shifted slightly, and I have made it known that I won’t miss her birthday, no matter what.  I have only gotten to see her three times, but each time has been so special, I know I am making memories that will last a lifetime, even if she doesn’t remember them.  As she grows, and boy is she growing, she will come to know me, and, hopefully love me, as much as my grandsons do.  I am very grateful that I have the opportunities to spend time with her, at all.

Of course, as important as my “Ava time” is, I also get to spend time with my parents, and my brother and his family, as well as my son and his wife.  I realize the size and scope of this vast country every time I think about how fast years are flying by, and how difficult it would be, if I was needed on short notice.  I am missing my niece and nephews growing up, but they are always so happy to see me, that I know I am not just a stranger to them when I breeze in and out of their lives, twice a year.  One of my biggest fears, and I try not to think about it or dwell on it often, is how quickly my parents have become older,  for lack of a better word.  I am so far away if anything were to happen to them, and it is probably one of the biggest reasons I hug them a little tighter when I am back at the airport, and why I bawl like a small child, every time I am sitting on the tarmac, waiting to taxi, when all I want to do is get off the flight and stay there.  Now, this post was meant to be about the good things I have going on, not about what I  might feel is lacking, so I will end this particular blurb by saying, I had a fabulous time reconnecting with all the loved ones who have the privilege to live where the ocean breezes are never far away, and folks are almost always friendly.

Now, I don’t have to fast-forward too far, to come to my next great adventure!  Ever since laws were changed, making it necessary to carry a valid passport, to go anywhere outside this country, we have continually found excuses to NOT take the time and work to get them done.  I was quite certain that that wasn’t likely to change, any time soon, if I didn’t take some drastic measures to make sure it happened.  To that end, I have a friend who is a travel agent, and I made the decision to just book a trip, and make it a necessity, if we wanted to avoid losing the money.  We had contemplated Vegas, but I am so incredibly happy that we chose to, skip the adult vacation, in favour of the big kid adventure!  We went to Disneyland! Two grown up adults, with no kids or grandkids, loose in “The Happiest Place on Earth!”  To say it was the vacation of a lifetime, would not even come close to doing it justice.  It was everything we had expected, and a million times more!  You know you have had an incredible time, when, while you are still THERE, you are talking about what you are going to do NEXT time you visit.

I am not going to bore you all with all the little details, and all the specific rides we went on, but I am going to hit some of the highlights, for sure.  Just walking through the gates, the feeling of childhood wonder, instantly enveloped me.  I was wide-eyed, and mesmerized at every turn, every character, every light, on every tree, every sound, every smell.  It is almost hard to describe, even for someone who prides herself on always being able to portray the correct emotions, in the most vivid terms.  I was transported back to a little girl, and thoroughly immersed myself in everything my senses could take in.  OK, the big girl in me managed to upload pictures, and updates, at every twist and turn, but, I had to TRY and share as much of my excitement with those back home, who chose to follow my journey, through facebook.

One of the biggest, most exciting events of the trip, was our trip out to Hermosa Beach.  The World has gotten smaller and smaller, with every technical advance in social media, and as a result, I have “met” a great deal of very interesting and fun people.  Stephen Jay Schwartz, definitely fits that bill to a t.  A few weeks before our trip, I sent Stephen a message asking him how I could get a copy of one of his books, signed.  He told me to send my address and he would get one in the mail for me.  Nice guy, right?  Now, these author types get really busy, and when we started to finalize our trip arrangements, I sent him another message, kind of joking, that if he lived anywhere near Disneyland, we were coming to town, and he could just meet me and give me the book personally.  Long story short, he agreed!!  I instantly booked a rental car for the day that worked best for him, and the next day, so we could drive to San Diego, for SeaWorld.

Well, as awesome as I thought he was, from chatting on facebook, occasionally, and reading his books, he was ten times better in person.  There was never a lull in conversation, he was gracious, funny, interesting, and entertaining.  He gave me some huge compliments on some things he pulled up off of this site, even.  I gave him a wee preview into a project I am going to be working on, and he was very excited for me..you have to wait, I am getting to that.  He also let me in on a few very exciting things he is up to, and I am quite honoured to think that I will eventually be able to say, I knew him when.  He has big things on the horizon, and you should make note of his name, and his books, Boulevard and Beat.  He gave me a copy of each, and was so sweet.  He didn’t sign them until I was there, and each inscription was really very special, and personal.

We spent some time with Stephen, at one of the cafes he writes in, and he gave us some pointers on what to see while we were in this beautiful little village.  We walked the beach, put our feet in to the Pacific.  I have to say, one of the locals said the water was about 60 degrees F and I laughed!  I so would have gone swimming, had I brought my suit, as that is warmer than Cold Lake gets in the middle of August, I am sure. We walked the pier, and around the town, deciding to grab lunch at a little restaurant, right off the beach.  We had one of our best meals of the entire trip.  I would definitely recommend a wee drive up the coast, to check out this amazing place.

The next leg of the trip was SeaWorld, and I am sure I could write an entire post on just that day, and experience.  Maybe I will at some point because some of the things we did there, were truly awe-inspiring.  The drive on the interstate, in and of itself, was incredible.  I don’t think I can remember ever being on such a big highway, but the GPS never steered us wrong once.  Another recommendation if you ever rent a car in South California!  Worth every penny, I assure you.  And, while we are on the topic, definitely spend a night in San Diego, because SeaWorld can’t be done in one day.  We were there from open till close, and missed maybe a third of it.  The shows were breathtaking, and WET.  The rides were thrilling, and sometimes WET.  I actually had my picture taken holding fake SNOW, as they had a huge mess of the stuff for the kids to play in.  Yep, paid thousands of dollars to get away from snow, and found it at SeaWorld AND Disneyland!!

One of our best decisions, was to spend the extra money to go behind the scenes of the Arctic exhibit.  It was about a 90 minute tour, and worth every single penny.  We spent time interacting with a male beluga whale, named Ferdinand.  We got to feel him and feed him.  I had touched one before, years ago at Marineland, but this was much different.  These amazingly intelligent creatures, feel kind of like a huge, squishy rubber ball, with all their blubber.  And, if you want to talk about blubber, imagine how much there is on a 3000 pound walrus, named OP!  He was awesome.  They usually only live to be about 30 years old in the wild, but this big guy was 42.  He is completely blind, and would never have lived to this age out there in the big old world, but he is thriving in his enclosure.  He was like an enormous puppy, and could respond to about 30 commands, including whistling a tune, while spewing a ton of walrus spit, I might add.  We also got to feed him fish, and they are just like a huge vacuum, when they suck in their food.  Interesting note, a walrus can suck a live clam out of its shell and not damage the shell.  Impressive, no?

Sunday, we spent our last day at Disneyland.  Anyone who knows me, even a little, knows that I have been obsessed with all things Winnie the Pooh, forever.  I have anything you can think of, with a Pooh on it somewhere.  In every room of my house, in my car, in thousands of dollars in figurines in my curio cabinet, he and his friends are well represented.  It took until our final day there, for me to fulfill my goal of meeting the “real” Pooh.  To say that I was overwhelmed, would be to say Moby Dick, was a little bit of a minnow.  I started to shake almost as soon as I saw him, and by the time it was my turn, as I was explaining to the girl working with him, how obsessed I am, I was crying.  By the time he was hugging me, I was openly weeping, tears and all.  I have to give kudos to the people who were working there.  Even though there was a line of little kids waiting to meet him too, they let me have as much time as I needed.  He hugged me over and over, told me he loved me too, by making his paws into a heart and putting them on his chest.  He wiped away my tears with his paws, and kissed me over and over.  I also have a fabulous picture of me kissing his nose.  I went on to meet Tigger and Eeyore as well, and they were so much fun too.  Tigger even bounced with me.  I didn’t stop crying for a good 20 minutes after I finally drug myself away.  I can’t even begin to explain how I was so overcome.  I am an intelligent person, I KNOW they are just people in suits, but it felt entirely as if they had become “REAL”, in all the years I have loved them.  The obsession started when Daniel was only 2 and I spent every night, after moving back into my parent’s home, with him, after I left my ex, laying down, in our room, watching the Pooh movie over and over, till I knew every word.  It may be that that was part of the reason for the outcry of emotion.  The memories that have become wrapped up in that fuzzy little cubby all stuffed with fluffies, are deep, and long-lasting.  I have to say, I won’t soon forget how that made me feel, as a lump forms in my throat even thinking about it now.

We also started to see some of California Adventureland, that afternoon.  My dear friend Sharla told me repeatedly, leading up to the trip that her favourite ride was The Twilight Zone’s Tower of Terror, so I made a point to head there, as soon as lunch settled enough, and it did NOT disappoint!  LOVED it! You are in an elevator shaft….flying up and down, FAST!  I have never been on a ride in my life that made me scream.  THAT one made me scream, both times we rode it!

That night, we took a bus trip over to throw ourselves back in time, to The Medieval Times.  Now this was definitely a highlight.  It is pricey, and the souvenirs are a must have, so it was one of our most expensive evenings for sure, but again, well worth it to spend an evening watching jousting, dueling, falconry, horse tricks, all while being served a three course meal, in traditional style i.e. without utensils, by a bar wench named Teresa.  Some of the best time was in The Knight Club afterwards, interacting and taking pictures with the Knights!  Fabulous entertainment.

I could go on and on about the immensity of experiences and memories that were made, in only six short days, but I have been very long winded already, and I still have one more incredible tale to begin with you folks.  Remember when I said I have “met” some great folks online?  Well, I don’t want to drag out all the connections I have made, that got me to Susan Wingate, in this post, but suffice to say, there are a few degrees of separation going on here, and I am so excited to say that she and I are working together.  She is a multi-award-winning author, who, after hearing the intro on this site, then a clip I recorded for CJ West, another fabulous author friend, offered me the opportunity to bring her book Drowning, to life.  So I am entering a new phase in my journey.  She has labeled me the “artist” who is going to record her audio book.  AHHHH!!  How cool is this??!!  I have always played with voices and accents, and I am beyond thrilled that Susan likes my voice enough to want me to do this project with her.  And, I think it is going to be big!  She has a contract with audible.com to release the book on CD and Mp3, sometime in the early spring.  Part of the book is done as the voice of a young child, and she has already approved my interpretation of this, and loved the first wee clip I sent her.  WOW, am I stoked???!!! Ummmm yesssss!!!  I have no idea where this could lead me, in future endeavors, but I think that it is going to be a lot of fun, along with a lot of work.  I seriously think I am up for the challenge.  Wait, no. I KNOW I am up for this challenge.  I really hope you will follow me on this leg of my journey, and, in the end, maybe even purchase the book!  We will continue this discussion as things progress!