Week-End Roundup (Or: A Fashion Show, A Listing That Almost Made it to Etsy and Some Country Air)

February is turning out to be an incredibly busy and unusually social month for me and I'm thrilled about this. It's during this month that I start to get rather antsy, with regards to winter and if I don't keep busy, I tend to get blue. Hopefully, if I keep my head down and push through all of the activities I have planned, I'll blink and it will be March. I used to dislike March too, until a few years ago when I started planning trips during that time or for the first week of April. Two years ago I went o Jamaica, last year I was in New York City and this year I'll be in Las Vegas. But, before I take this tangent and run any further with it, this is what last week-end looked like:

Friday night I covered an event on behalf of Naiade for The Models' Coach. It started late, ran later and was kind of a mess but the photographer was good company and I was happy to be in my element. While waiting (and waiting) for the show to start, I cupped my balls in one hand and, with the other, wrote to a beautiful boy I've known online for a while and asked him out for a beer. He quickly and happily said yes and I must admit the exchange helped me ignore my mounting impatience.

Saturday morning, before listing some dia de los muertos cushion covers I made on Etsy, I decided to post them on facebook. Two people expressed a desire to purchase them and so they have yet to go up on the shop.

Midday, my stepdad came around with a rented SUV and we all piled in and headed up North for some quality time with my mom's three brothers and their families.

After a loud and enjoyably emotional dinner and much wine, I got geared up for the great outdoors and began my tipsy march down the hill behind my uncle's house, to the skating rink he and his boys work so hard to upkeep every year. On my way down, I thought about all of the times I had loudly proclaimed that my next boyfriend would not be a closed-minded Quebecer who can't wrap his head around the world beyond our borders and I knew something had changed within me. While I do want someone in my life that is worldly and accepting of other cultures, a part of me realizes that he'll either have to be able to relate to this side of my family or be incredibly open-minded as, for the first time in my life, I realize that that is important to me. There are two completely legitimate sides to me, when it comes to culture and, while I would greatly appreciate finally dating someone I can take out to a seven-course meal, who can hold his own throughout intelligent and stimulating conversation, who is well-read, who gets my Monty Python references and my dry humour, it dawned on me that he's also going to need to go with the flow when my French-Canadian family lets loose. I'm not saying he has to be from here but, for a moment, I thought of how nice it would be bring someone to my uncle's house for the first time and not have to spend hours explaining and possibly consoling. Whatever happens happens but this is what I was thinking as I made my way down to get my ass kicked by my daughter, sister and cousins on the rink.

The next morning, I took some time to head back down and snap a few photos with my phone.

On the way back, I thought about the family I'd be estranged from for a large chunk of my life and about how freeing it was to open my heart to them again. Looking around the table at all these kids who look like mine and like me and reminiscing about the great times I had with these guys when I was a child made a huge difference in my life and I've been feeling it since. This may be the understatement of the year but having kin is important and I'd spent so many years defiantly preaching about my friends being the family I've chosen that I'd overlooked the fact that I could one day work shit out with these guys and have this big, beautiful, loud, funny, loving clan of my own, after all.

I came home to a gorgeous snow-covered trees. My daughter and I spent the afternoon sorting through some more of our things and relaxing.

Posted in: country living,countryside,dia de los muertos,family,fashion show,french canadian,ice hockey,montreal,montreal fashion,quebec,quebecoise,rustic,sewing,snow,sugar skulls,week-end round-up,winter