I had the most wonderful weekend from the 11th to the 14th. I, along with my sister, Melanie, and mother, ventured up into Northern Ontario.
We had to take my niece up to Timmins and drop her off at her dad's. It was a wonderful drive up there. It takes about 9 hours to drive to Timmins. We stopped in North Bay for lunch and I had an excellent sandwich/salad/soup combo. We made it into Timmins late at night and simply fell asleep right away.

The next day we met up with my other sister June - she had come down from Moosonee to meet us. We hung out for a bit and then ended up splitting up. My mom, Melanie, and I went to visit my grandmother while June ran some errands.

I was very happy with my grandmother's visit. I don't see her very often (e.g. I haven't seen her since 2004) and her mind is a bit frail so her thoughts wander a lot. However, this time she seemed to focus on me for a lot of the visit. She kept asking where I was and making sure I was nearby. Why's that you ask? Because I'm "the strong one." Let me elaborate on this. My family and I decided to take my grandmother for a trip out to the mall - she has a difficult time walking and therefore hardly ever gets out of the nursing home. Getting my grandmother from her wheelchair to her van is an ordeal in itself. She was afraid she was going to fall, but we kept reassuring her. Essentially Melanie and I had to drag/shove her (although in a much more gentle fashion than I make it
sound) into the front of the van. She was so happy that we were strong enough to get her in there, that's why I was "the strong one." My mom was able to converse with my grandmother in Cree quite a bit. The most I ever had to say really was answering her questions as to where my mother was.

After our visit, we went back to the hotel room and chilled out for a bit. We couldn't decide on what to do, so we ended up just going to the Casey's restaurant next door and having dinner. However, that wasn't the end of our plans. One of my siblings made the brilliant suggestion of having a couple of drinks... It was SO MUCH FUN! Every time the waitress came to our table, we'd order a different cocktail/margarita/martini. We had 5 rounds each of different beverages and they were HUGE! Needless to say, Mau got a bit drunk. We were especially amused by the fact that our drinks were taking forever to make. It turns out that the bartender that night wasn't the regular bartender, so she was unfamiliar with all the drinks we were ordering and whatnot. The chick was probably a pro by the time we were done with her. My top 3 favourite drinks of the night were the Drive by Fruiting, Raspberry Fusion, and the Vanilla Creamsicle. So.
De. Li. Cious.

On Sunday, we followed a similar pattern. Wake up, go shopping, visit grandmother. It was fun. Nothing more to be said. (See? Who says I can't keep my stories short?) Oh yeah, before the shopping/grandmother part, we also went for a picnic (a.k.a. buy fast food and sit in a park and eat it) and played mini-putt. That was the first time I ever had a salad from McDonald's. I've gotta get those more. Except for the deep fried pieces of chicken spread on top of it, it was pretty good! I also realized that I truly suck at mini-putt. I was in second last place! :-( That made me sad. (Ha, and I should mention that the only "hole-in-one"
that I got was courtesy of June - she knocked her ball into mine and got me in the hole!)

For dinner we ventured downtown for Chinese food. Unfortunately at this point, the past two nights of sharing a bed with my mom caught up with me. I was exhausted, sore, and had a killer headache. The others went for a walk downtown (apparently some hobos tried to pick them up) and I snoozed in the van instead. Precious sleep ensued. We returned to the hotel. My mom and I decided to chill out in the hotel room (we were both tired). Mel and June went back to Casey's for a couple of drinks/dessert.

Oh yeah, Melanie attempted to smother my mother in her sleep. Apparently Mel doesnt' like it when people snore non-stop for 8 hours.

Then it was the end. The next morning we left and began the long drive back down to Owen Sound. It was an okay drive - it rained a lot, which made the drive seem longer than it was. We decided to stop in North Bay for lunch. Mel and Mom wanted to eat at a place they had stopped off at the last time they were in North Bay. They only things they could tell me about this restaurant was that it was a truck stop and that it had super powerful hand dryers in the washrooms. We therefore drove ALL the way through North Bay, past all these delicious restaurants, in search of a place we weren't even too positive of the location of. (We got slightly lost while looking for this stupid place.) Eventually we made it (darn it) to the restaurant. It was a cleaner truck stop... But amusingly, upon entering, we saw a sign that the restaurant would be closing in a week. Ha. Maybe they should have installed more hand dryers in the washrooms to attract repeat customers.

I finally made it home. I can't recall if anything interesting happened over the past week... I mainly just vegged out and relaxed. It's odd to realize that this week is my first full week of work in like, a month.
(I've been taking a day off each week with the time I banked.) I did go see a movie with Henry and Liz - we saw The Devil Wears Prada (this is my 3rd time). Henry was practically the only guy in the theater. He claimed he felt all girlie afterwards.

My weekend went well. I mainly relaxed, watched movies, and played on my computer. I have another story from the weekend to tell, but it's still unfolding... I shall post as soon as I feel it's safe to do so... It's gross but funny (well, funnier for those who aren't around me - but from my point of view, it was funny, but is now exasperating and frustrating).

While on my Timmins trip, I read a giant novel (well, it was a kids book, but big) and started on the second. (I highly recommend reading it
- it's called The Amulet of Samarkand and the main character is freakin'
hilarious!) I got my dad to get some books from the library for me...
I'm now attempting to read Jane Eyre (by Charlotte Bronte), Wuthering Heights (by Emily Bronte) and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde (by someone who's name I can't remember.) I'm try to read classical novels because let's face it, they're famous. I want to know why...
(Although after having read the original Dracula book, I don't know why it was so famous... It was boring and the ending was anti-climatic.) I've also been on a real magazine kick lately. I guess it's because they're fun, light, and pretty. I just like the random advice they provide...

Anyways, I should end this off. Hopefully when school starts, I'll post more often. Can't wait to see everyone!