2011

We're 6 days into 2011 and I've been spending a lot of time thinking about things I would like to accomplish this year. I need to stress though that these are NOT New Year's resolutions. Anyway, here we go:

1. Continue working with my Naturopath. I've been seeing a naturopath for a few weeks, so it's still pretty new but I'd like to continue with that. Over the last three weeks I have noticed an improvement with my stomach. We didn't really change much at all but I think that's key to being able to continue with it. Small changes over a longer time frame. Already he's given me confidence that what is going on with my stomach is NOT okay and that I deserve to have it seen by a specialist who can and will rule out some serious conditions.

2. Travel a bit. Nothing far and wide. The boy can't leave Canada since he doesn't have a passport since he isn't a Canadian citizen, but a mere landed immigrant for the last 30 years. Anyway, so my travel goals will be to visit a friend in Edmonton, a friend in Summerland (hello Wine tours!), and head back to my home of two years, Vancouver. It would also be nice to knock off a destination I haven't ever visited so let's say Montreal. However, should the boy get his passport soon then hopefully we can visit a few american destinations as well. We've talked about Minnesota and Texas (was Texas? or some neighbouring state?). I'd also like to head to California for a wine tour. He's been (pre-passport rules for land border crossings) before but why not go again, right?

3. Find a job that ISNT a contract job. I'd like to work in the same job for more than a pre-determined time frame. This is mostly because I'd like to buy a condo or house next winter and I won't feel comfortable doing that if I don't have a longer term job. I'm hoping I find this job before April, here's hoping!!
3B. Hopefully this job will cross me over into the corporate world because dude, pay in the charity world sucks. I love having a dogooder job, but at some point I'd like to work on the other side (in a do-gooder type role, of course).

4. Continue to be madly in love with my boy.

5. Buy a house (or condo). This is something that is really important to me. I know it probably won't happen before December however, it needs to be on the list now because it is a goal that I am working towards. I don't want anything fancy, preferably something that I can make my own but that isn't a money pit. The boy lives out of town. I drive out there a few days a week. Because of his work, he won't ever move to the city but it's also really not feasible for me to commute every day and I don't want to live with my parents forever so house it is.

6. Continue and hopefully get really really close to paying off my school loans. That would be lovely. And that's the plan. I'll hopefully have the vast majority of it out of the way by year's end. Finally. YAY!!

As you can see, these are all lofty goals. Okay, maybe 4 isn't that lofty. But as such, I don't have room to list off things like "work out more" or "insert other thing here". Not that I won't be doing these things but I think this will be my major list. Maybe in a month or two I'll come up with a more fun list :)

Wow. What a great day.

Worked my butt off all day...but in a good way.

Had a great dinner with colleagues.

Travelled over to a mall to take care of the boy's Christmas gift.

Met a lovely person from BC on my way back to the hotel.

This is why I love that I am independent and comfortable in a great many different situations. I'm good at spending time alone. I'm great at travelling by myself. And then I'm perfectly comfortable to start a conversation with someone.

And I'm glad that I have a boy who loves these things about me.

Win Win Win all around


(I only mention the boy because I've been in relationships where the guy actually hasn't been that comfortable with that side of me, often due to him being insecure)

I recently went to Toronto on a work trip. I actually had the opportunity to be a bit of a tourist rather than be stuck in a hotel working the whole time so that part was really nice. What wasn't nice was trying to find places to eat around my hotel. OMG that was brutal. I ended up having one dinner at The Keg which was nice since a lot of their stuff is very gluten free friendly and they even have a separate menu which was a nice touch but of course, that's a bit more expensive. However, much more reasonable than the lunch I had at my hotel. OMG. BRUTAL. Which is what lead to me wanting to find a different place for lunch the next day.

I hopped on Google to try to figure out what was near by and noticed there was a Boston Pizza not far away. They have GF pizza's that are just sooooooooo good. Except, while it looked not far away it was a good 15 minute walk from my hotel in plus 35 (celsius) heat. Awesome. And when I got there they were full and the wait was 20 minutes and I was dying of the heat. I ended up deciding to go elsewhere which was pretty much my 2nd mistake (my first was not opting to go to The Keg again for lunch, lol). I ended up going to a couple other places and reading their menu outside to decide if I wanted to go inside. Except, I didn't. I ended up at Tony Roma's and when I asked the manager there about GF options he was USELESS. I'm sorry but if the manager is useless, then it's really just a pointless restaurant excursion because OMG if they don't get it, their staff won't either. I ended up having fries. yay!!!!!! Anyway, I later found out that all their rib sauces are GF so I could have had ribs but since the manager was useless, I didn't know that. Woohoo.

Anyway, I figured Toronto would be super eassy to find GF food because hello, huge city! That means more people with a special diet like this. But nope, I had bigger obstacles than in Winnipeg. Although, I'm pretty sure the only reason I don't have huge obstacles here is that I'm familiar with the lay of the land as it were and so I know where to go. And I have a car so I can go wherever I please rather than being at the mercy of where I can walk/taxi/bus without getting lost. Oh well!!! I was there for a conference of sorts and I must say, they were awesome at ensuring GF meals HOWEVER, my only complaint is that I had to find a server and ask them for my food (it was a buffet for most people). I felt like this created an obstacle as well as singled me out. I work in the disabilities community and I really strongly believe in eliminating barriers. I hate when people need to ask for a key to an elevator in order to ensure accessibility, that type of thing however, I felt like I was basically "asking for the key" in order to get my lunch. I really just wish they had had the buffet items labelled as to what they are with a little "GF" symbol next to them. If I couldn't get protein off the GF buffet, then fine, make me ask I guess but almost guaranteed there were items I could have had from the buffet but since they weren't marked, I wasn't going to risk it :(

Anyway, this has made me want to become more involved in advocacy work. I think the more restaurants know about gluten intolerances and the more they know how EASY it is to accommodate then the better. So yes, I am on a mission. Watch out.

In happier news, I discovered Kinni-Kritters this week. Yum!!! I've been a wee bit jealous of my nephew because he can have all the animal crackers he wants but yay now I can have them too!!! Other than bread and pasta, there aren't a ton of gluten type foods that I love. I like cookies but I don't love them so no big deal. I've really only ever like chocolate cake/brownies and I have a store that makes FAB GF brownines so that dilema is solved. And Glutino makes amazing crackers that I love. The Kinni-Kritters just completes the "missing" food from my life. YAY!!!

Things to do

Elle is planning.
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Once I get a paying job, my goal is to try to do a little travelling. I'm hoping the following places will be on the list over the next 12 months:

-Edmonton (to visit one of my many bff's, her hubby, and her brand new baby)(hopefully this can happen in February. Crossing my fingers REALLY REALLY hard. Postponement to March would make me sad BUT would still make me happy happy.
-Summerland, BC - Hello, Okanagan valley. Amazing views. Amazing Wine. Need I say more?? Oh, and another BFF and her baby girl (who is growing up toooooo fast!!! 2? How did that happen)
-Vancouver - So pretty in the spring/early summer. Not so much November to March. Also, I want to show the boy how much better Vancouver is over Toronto (even if I've never been there)
-Toronto - the boy is supposed to show me how much better TO is over Van. We'll see.
-Halifax - Work related goal (yes yes, what work? We shall see....)
-Calgary/Banff - Also work related but possibly more feasible work related thing.

Yes, I realize this includes no cities outside of Canda but that's okay. This is a 12 month goal not a 2 or 5 year goal. Long term would obviously include destinations such as ummm, somewhere hot like Mexico, Australia, the UK, and maybe Germany since I have this fascination I can't explain (since I was in High School) and the boy happens to actually be from there (even if he can't actually remember living there, haha).

Elle.