Thanksgiving

It is that time of year again, however it began this is the time that is now meant for expressing gratitude for the good things in your life. Also for stuffing yourself so full of turkey you can't move, but mostly gratitude.

It has been a rough year in some very big ways. Strangely not worse than the year before, but still a rough one. Which to me makes it even more important to give thanks. 

What am I thankful for this year?

My family. My mum especially... you may be starting to gather that she is really important to me. She is my best friend and biggest support. I would be completely lost without her, so I am grateful for her and for her health. I am grateful for my dad and the values he instilled in me, even if they do mean I sometimes take the harder path. I am also grateful for the constantly improving relationship he and I have. My brother too, and not just because he has given me a great sister. It may have taken becoming adults but I have a lot of love and respect for him. I am so grateful for the humor he brings into my life. I am also blessed with wonderful cousins like Sam, loving aunts and uncles, and grandparents who mean the world to me. 

My friends. I know... cheesy and cliche so far but live with it. I am so blessed to have an amazing group of people around me, who love me even when I do things like move across the world and then back. There are a few who have really gone above and beyond lately though. I am grateful to Chris and Courtney who have both opened their homes to Quirk and I while we find our own place, as well as for all the work they did getting Quirk to me when I moved to England. I am grateful to David and Vanessa and Becka and Katherine and Jesse for all the support they gave me during the tough month of September, it would have been much more difficult and less bearable without you. I am also grateful to the dozens of others who sent kind words and supportive thoughts and interesting podcasts to help me process what had happened. 

I am grateful to have jobs to return to that I enjoy and am excited about. Even more so since those jobs come with wonderful coworkers who I am excited to see!d

I am grateful for Quirk. While she's been rather expensive to fly around the world, she is my familiar and companion. I love her to pieces, even when she bites me for leaving her. I consider myself so lucky that she had come through our adventure relatively unscathed and quite healthy. 

I am grateful for the technology that made it possible for me to keep in touch with people from home while I was in England, and now that I'm home to keep in touch with the people who are there. It seems kind of materialistic, but I don't mean it that way. I know things would have been much tougher without the ability to talk to my loved ones in real-time with relatively little hassle.

I am grateful for my health. This should probably have gone first, but it's here instead. I am so lucky to have the doctors I have. Not just my mental health though, I am grateful for my physical health which is significantly better than it was this time last year. 

I am grateful for my education which helped develop me into the person I am today and allows me to do work I enjoy. I know I am lucky to live in a country with a good education system and that  I was able to go to University. 

Speaking of, I am grateful for all the ways in which I am lucky to have been born where I was. Access to food, clean water, relative equality, easy access to utilities and medicine, etc. 

I am grateful for the opportunity I got to go abroad and learn more about myself. While in some ways it didn't work out as hoped, I still got to meet amazing people, see more of the world, and learn a lot about myself and my values. Not bad for a few months! Yes there was some really awful stuff, but even that had it's things to be grateful for, including the knowledge that I have such better coping skills than I did when I was younger. 

That being said though, the last thanks I'm going to give on here is for being home. I love this place, and the people in it. I could write a whole entry on all the things I'm grateful for about being back, but will spare you (for now). 

I will spend tomorrow seeing my beloved fur-niece and having a thanksgiving meal with fantastic friends. I know that also makes me lucky. To anyone who actually read this far down, I wish you a fantastic Thanksgiving filled with love and laughter. There's a lot to be thankful for after all. 

P.S. Mmmm turkey. 

Update on the other side of the Atlantic

I thought I would write a quick update and let those who are curious know how I am doing post-everything.

I flew back to Canada a little under a week ago (strange to think!). After the chaos described in my last post the rest of the trip was pretty unexciting. I arrived safely to be greeted with a hug by my mum and friend Chris. Mum headed back home and Chris and I went about collecting Quirk which was a bit of a process. We eventually got the cat, who was traumatized but otherwise safe and healthy, and headed to Chris' place. I was completely exhausted but stayed up visiting until a reasonably late time and fell hard asleep, only to wake up at about 4 in the morning and be unable to fall back asleep. I was not very impressed. 

Since then my body has been working on normalizing. My sleep is still a little wonky - mostly I just wake up early when I don't want to. Quirk is staying with Chris for the time being, so when in the city ai have been as well. I just returned from a wonderful three days home with my family (strange and wonderful as always!) 

The hardest part for me right now is simply not having my own space and feeling very unsettled. I have been lining up apartment viewings. So far I have seen one that seems like it could be good, if it is still available tomorrow I will go give them a deposit and my application. I have also decided to buy a car again after much debate with myself and others. That could be a whole post on its own. I am pretty excited however. 

I start work in a week and am really excited. I am returning to a place I have worked before and quite enjoyed. I am also looking into a side job writing items for exams, I have a meeting tomorrow afternoon about it. I am hoping to make a little extra cash to help with savings and paying off the credit card bills I have been building with this whole adventure. 

So that's all the practical stuff. On the emotional end  I am much better than I was. I find myself getting down a fair bit but that is related to feeling the lack of my own space and just feeling overwhelmed by everything I have to deal with. Nothing like the depression was. Otherwise I just feel better. I remember now who I am and am still just shocked at how quickly that all got lost. I was messaging with someone the other day who mentioned that even over texts they could tell I was happier. This made perfect sense to me as I know I carry a very different tone usually than I did during this stuff. I would like to think I'm funnier and more fun now than I had been being. I still have moments where everything feels completely surreal, it is hard to believe everything that has happened. I would like to believe it was all some crazy dream.  Once I get more settled and sorted I will be fully back to myself and have a better time processing it all. 

And Quirk? She's a little grumpy with me for leaving her while I went home. But she is slowly (very slowly) getting her behaviour normalized as well. She'll never be quite the same cat as she originally was - she has seen too much to go back to that innocent state! - but I think she'll be okay. There's no sign so far of the health problems she was having in England which I take as a good sign. 

I meant this to be organized and cohesive, but my body is convinced it's bed time and very sleepy. So I will end here. 

How is my life a thing that exists?

I have decided that I should write a book and call it Vignettes from an Ordinary Ridiculous life. Why? To commemorate all the completely ridiculous things that happen to me. Things that make me ask the question "How is my life a thing that happens?"

Today's ridiculous adventure involves an administrative mess up, a last minute race through Heathrow airport, and a cat. Of course a cat, all of my most ridiculous stories involve a cat. 

Quirk and I are returning to Canada (hopefully). We had to rebook a previously planned Christmas flight which meant we had no choice in times. This resulted in a 7:30 flight from Manchester to Heathrow, followed by an 8 hour layover before leaving for Canada. For a human this is an absolutely awful flight plan. For a human travelling with a cat it's not so bad because it means we can be on the same planes. 

Or adventure begins slowly. At 2:30 this morning I woke up, put Quirk into her massive carrier, and caught a pre-arranged taxi to the cargo centre for Manchester Airport. They took her paperwork and copied what they needed, which surprised me because I thought they would need originals. Then they made me wait around while they put Quirk through an X-Ray. What they think I could have hidden in a cat I don't know, but she passed and at last I left her there and got to go back to the hotel and crawl into bed for another hour's sleep. 

At 5:30 I caught another taxi, this time with my massive luggage, to the airport proper. The poor driver didn't listen when I warned that my one suitcase was terribly heavy, and was unpleasantly surprised when trying to lift it into the boot of his car. He was probably over 60 so I felt terrible. Even more so when he refused to let me get it out myself at the airport. I took my bags in, paid the extra baggage and weight fees, and found somewhere to sit and wait for my first plane. 

The trip to London was pretty uneventful. I alternated snoozing with reading my book about English history and stopped to send love to my kitty in the hold. Arriving in Heathrow I took a transfer bus from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3, went through security for a second time, and got my Air Canada boarding pass. I then picked up some junk food and settled in for my 8 hour wait. 

Just before noon I was starting to think how I should go get lunch when I get a phone call from the company handling Quirk's flight. There's a problem. The only paperwork they can find is a photocopy of the fit to fly certificate, they don't have anything else. Not only did the guy in Manchester give me the originals back when he shouldn't have, he didn't even copy everything. They need the originals by 12:30 (cats need to be processed and boarded 4 hours prior to the flight) - can I catch a cab to their office and bring them the papers? 

Getting this cat home is pretty important to me, so of course I say yes. And then I realize I have no idea how to get out of the departures area, never mind the terminal. I walk towards the way I came in and find the security area. One person points me to an exit there, but when I ask the next person they explain that because I've already gone through and been processed I have to go out the other way. At the other end. 

I start walking towards the other end. And then I start running because I don't have much time - it's now at least 5 after and the clock is ticking. And then I remember I am carrying a ridiculously heavy purse and wearing impractical shoes so I stop running. And then I get anxious and start again. I continue this way, alternating running with fast walking, to the other end where I encounter my next hurdle. Immigration. 

See because I'm trying to leave the airport I have to go through Border Control. Even though I've only come from MANCHESTER. Even though all I want to do is run these papers over and come right back. I still have to get my passport stamped. 

At this point it is nearing quarter after. My time is half gone. I call the company in tears and out of breath, and they are able to do the miraculous! They convince Air Canada to extend the deadline by half an hour. This will still be tough but is possible. 

Going through immigration itself was interesting trying to explain what was going on. But eventually the guy just stamps my passport and gives me a look. I take this to mean I can go and start running again, this time to get to the taxi queue. 

Here is where the company comes through for me again! They are sending a driver to meet me! But I have to have money for them, so I try to describe myself and go get cash. 

And then I go outside and wait. And wait. And wait. I talk to the girl and she tells me I am looking for a white van. Because those are a nice rare species here! The clock is ticking, and all I can do is mournfully eye every white van that goes past. 

Until at last! My phone rings! He is parked near departures and using the time-honoured method of walking around looking for another person on the phone I find the driver and pass off the papers. 

I start through security feeling triumphant until a ripple of unease passes over me. I missed a paper. I forgot that it was tucked in with other stuff. I walk back out of the security line and call the company. Luckily they were able to make a new one and all is good. 

Until they notice that the CFIA stuff has a messed up microchip number on it that is. That will be fun to deal with!