Jonathan @ Carleton: Blog: Summer edition

Well long time no text everyone. I’m sure some people may be unhappy about the fact that I haven’t updated my blog in over 300 melania, but look on the bright side, you have no doubt used the time you could have spent reading my blog doing something far more productive, like sleeping or twiddling your thumbs. Well since you have decided to spend your precious thumb twiddling time reading this I’ll do my best to make it worth your while. Here’s a condensed version of my summer that will shock, entertain, and distract you from whatever it is you should be doing for a short amount of time.

Summer Job:

Ah yes summer time, a time for fun, sun and... employment. Yes just as many other people young and old I spent much of my summer at a job. You may have noticed I have said ‘job’ and ‘employment’ but never ‘work’. This is no accident, my summer job was certainly not work by any extent of the imagination. The position utilized my honed skills of sitting, opening beer and taking money. What position requires these skills you may ask? Working in a kiosk at the golf corse in my town (Redwood Meadows). This ‘job’ required me to sit in a kiosk on hole 4 or 14 and serve the golfers beer or other refreshments. Of corse the beauty of this is that golfers only came by every ten minutes (because of the time it took to play the corse) and only every second group wanted something. This equates to 20 minutes of free time and then 1 minute of the backbreaking task of opening beer. Sufficed to say it was not the most trying position. On top of the simplicity of the 10 hour shifts I would work (and the 10 hours of pay that felt like robbery) I had a great boss and some great co-workers (even though I only saw them about 2 hours of the 10 hour work day).

Although it may seem like a dream job, the excessive amounts of ‘free’ time became taxing. After enough music and reading one becomes tired of being restricted to the same place 10 hours a day 5-6 days a week. This desire to actually do something with my summer led to the road trip Greer and I went on.

Road Trip:

For those of you who don’t know Greer is a friend I have had since I was 5, and as such almost feels more like a sister than a friend. About 3 weeks before this road trip Greer had jaw surgery to correct a chronic under bight. Due to this surgery, she was wearing a mouth cast the entire time we were on this trip (giving her a lisp that only cruel people like me could find hilarious). The idea of a road trip happened when I was visiting her after a long day of ‘work’. I mentioned I wanted to do something other than sit in a booth all day. Having to be in bed for quite some time after the surgery Greer understood where I was coming from and together we came up with the idea of a road trip. She knew of a really good camp spot that was 4 hours away and so I got off 3 days in a row and we head out on the road. It has been a while now since the trip so I don’t remember all the details, but the memories I do have are all good. We drove down through Longview and had some famous Longview beef jerky, after visiting the Longview Liquor store. We also drove through Frank Slide where I picked up a souvenir rock. After a couple more hundred kilometers we arrived at Kickaman lake (don’t know how to spell it but it sounds like kick-a-man). It was so incredibly hot out when we arrived (36 degrees celsius before humidity) we went straight to the water. The lake we were camping near was the ‘boating lake’ so the water was not very clear and there was a lot of drift wood but that didn’t stop my stinking-sweating-pasty-sunburnt body from diving in. Getting in that water made the entire trip worth while, I cant remember the last time I felt so refreshed. Greer assured me that there was a better lake a short drive up the road, so after setting up our tent we got back in the car and headed to the other lake. It was absolutely beautiful. Crystal clear water, surrounded by sand and forest. That evening there were a good number of families and other groups enjoying that same beautiful spot. We headed back to the campsite and had dinner and a few drinks before passing out and going to sleep. The next day we packed up the campsite and enjoyed a picnic lunch at the lake. The lake was even more beautiful in the morning when there was no one there. Floating on a air mattress in the lake I saw a loon in the water followed by a dear on the shore. Eventually we had to pack up and head back to the car to make it home in good time. We stopped at a Tim’s on the way back where by some incredible luck we ran into Greer’s friend from Scotland who she was planing to meet the next week. After a ‘short’ chat (I would hate to see a long chat...) we headed back on the road, stopping along the way to cool off in the rivers. This trip was most certainly a highlight of my summer.

The next several months past in what seemed like a never ending routine. This routine was defined by the triad of eating, going to work, and sleeping. Although this may seem like a recipe for insanity, my routine was fortunately interrupted by my friends, and the occasional out of house adventure.

This exiting chapter of my summer was ended when I headed east with my family. For those of you who don’t know, my family always heads out east to visit our extended family. This year was a bit different than most. The first difference was that the kids weren’t heading home with the parents. I stayed in Ottawa and my sister took a train ride across Canada with my Grandmother. The second big difference was that we scheduled our trip so we could go to my cousins wedding. This was a big deal because I have never been to a wedding and because it was my first cousin to get married.

The Trip Out East:

We began our trip out east as many begin trips of great distances, with a single step. The difference between us and about 100 other people is that step led us into the ‘executive’ line, where the checked-in took less than 2 minutes. After a ‘short’ plane trip we arrived in Montreal where we continued to exercise dads old company benefit by checking into the Hilton. We had some R and R by the pool and then went to visit my Grandmother Gill. After a nice visit we heading back to the Hilton to rest up and prepare for the days to come. Future events in Montreal included going to Ambers wedding, visiting the La Ronde Theme park, and chilling with the rest of the family.

The Wedding:

My cousin Ambers wedding was certainly one of the highlights of my summer. Not only was this the first wedding I have ever been to, but this is also the first Jewish Wedding I have ever been to. Now I don’t know what normal weddings are like but I can only assume they are less festive than Amber’s wedding was. Although the meet and greet and the ceremony were fairly low key, the dinner and dancing after were crazier than any party I have ever been to. Regardless of the amount of Alcohol consumed this is the first time I have witnessed people running around in circles, tossing people around on chairs, and throwing people into the air. It was like a mosh pit on steroids, needless to say a lot of fun. If the dancing wasn’t enough there was also the food, 4 large corse servings that even I had a hard time finishing (If you know me you know that’s a lot of food.) By the time I got the last fork full of the last corse down, I swore to myself I would never eat again. Shortly after I mad this vow to never eat again, a fake wall on one side of the auditorium parted to reveal a full desert table complete with cake, truffles and a chocolate fondue fountain. Despite the fact that it hurt to move, I managed to make it over to sample a bit of everything. After the food was done I hardly felt like partaking in the open bar, but that certainly didn’t stop my cousins or my uncle. I don’t think the grooms family will ever make the mistake of having an open bar around the Gill boys again. By the time my family left, to my count Trevor (my cousin) had finished his 8th Heineken and was starting whisky shots at the bar.

La Ronde:

The day after Ambers wedding we planed to go to the six flags theme park La Ronde. After some breakfast Alison (my sister) met up with her friend from Calgary, Cam, who was coincidently in Montreal the same time we were. We then drove to the Trevor and Ryan’s family and relaxed with them for awhile. We then convinced a very hung over Trevor to accompany us to La Ronde. We were really lucky with the weather because it was overcast in the morning, but cleared up in the afternoon. This meant that no one went to La Ronde and so we could just walk on to all the rides. I could go on for pages about how each ride was, but I’ll spare the detail. The one thing all the rides had in common were enjoyment and that they were followed by the moans of a hung over Trevor. We rode all the rides we wanted to, and many we rode more than once. Overall it was a great time.

For the following days we continued to visit our Gill relatives include Mary Rose and Lilly’s family. When we finished our long goodbyes we hit the road to North Bay and my Grandmother Jane’s Cottage.

The Cottage:

Every year when my family goes east we always stop at my Grandmas cottage in North Bay. There are many years when my Dad, his two brothers and their respected families all invade at the same time. Unfortunately that was not the case this time. This time only my family and my uncle John’s family (minus Joel) visited. We spent a lot of time in or on the water. One night when there was a meteor shower we rowed out into the middle of the lake to watch the night sky. I have never seen the stars in such a pronounced way before. It was really good to see the other Courtney’s again and in what felt like an instant our several days at the cottage had run out. My parents drove my Grandmother and my sister to the train station in North Bay to catch a train all the way to Vancouver. My Grandmother has always wanted to do this, and she invited my sister along for the ride. I’ve talked to them both about their trip and they both agree it was a great experience. After my parents dropped off my sister they came and had dinner with Uncle John’s family and me. A delicious meal and some long goodbyes later, we hit the road to Ottawa.

Ottawa:

After a long and scenic drive of Ontario (Rocks and trees and trees and rocks...) we arrived at my mothers friend MiMi’s house. As always MiMi was in an upbeat mood and was there to greet us and help us with our luggage. After showing me to my room, Mimi brought my folks down stairs to their room. My mom quickly noticed that the room they were staying in was usually MiMi’s room. “Where are you sleeping?” My mom asked. Mimi only responed “Don’t worry about it.” MiMi often houses students from other countries studying in Ottawa, and at this time she had two guys, one from Korea and the other from Kazakstan. We found out later that because her billets were taking up the other rooms, MiMi slept on the sofa and let my parents have her bed. She is one heck of a lady.

The next few days were dominated by buying things for me and my new house. We dropped by the house the day after we arrived in Ottawa. I met up with Rafik at the house and my parents toured the residence that I will be spending the next (at least) 8 months in. My mom stayed behind to clean the basement while dad and I went to find the most important article in any bed room, the bed. For those of you who know me well, you know I love to sleep so I had considerable invested interest in finding a comfortable bed. We found a great queen sized bed at a good price and tied it and the bed set to the top of our van and headed back to the house. The rest of the day was spent buying and setting up a desk a chair and all the cleaning products that are very necessary when you have a house of 6 guys. That night my parents went back to Mimi’s to sleep and I slept at my house for the very first time. The next day we bought food and a number of other things we needed. After a long goodbye and a few “mommy mommy mommy”s my parents headed out to Montreal to fly home.

The Stop the SPP Rally:

Shortly after I finished setting up house in Ottawa a friend of mine, Karl told me about a protest he wanted to go to. The protest was held to raise awareness and demonstrate our disapproval of the SPP. For those of you who don’t know what it is, the SPP is the Security and Prosperity Partnership, an attempt to bring further economic and security unity between America, Canada and Mexico. The SPP talks occurred between the presidents and prime minister of the three countries and also a select group of cooperate representatives from big businesses. The discussion would take place at Montebello Quebec, behind closed doors with no video or audio recording of what was happening. People who took part in the protests represented interests from environmentalists to aboriginal rights activists to trade union executives. I am personally apposed to the SPP for many reasons, the main one is that increased North American unity would mean that Canadian troops would be used for Americas War on Terror (continuing the trend Afghanistan has started). Another reason I appose the SPP is that increased Economic unity usually disproportionally benefits the rich and would put more economic and therefore political power in the hands of a smaller elite. But that is enough about my crazy communist beliefs, if you want to know more about the protests and the SPP please check out http://www.stopspp.ca/stopspp/index.php

All right, well that brings you guys more or less up to speed. Hopefully I will have another post up in a couple weeks to talk about my first weeks of year two. Until next time, keep on rocking in the free world.

Pictures:

Stop The SPP Protest: