Montreal with the Boys

I actually had a weekend off two weekends ago (which is, of course, a feat) and I asked by brother-in-law Moreass and his friend Jochef if they wanted to go to Montreal. Give two party boys a chance to go to Montreal where they've never been before to spend the weekend drinking and partying and oogling naked women at Supersex - what do you think they were going to say?
It was a long drive...you can tell how long it was by my brother's face in this picture.

We finally make it to Montreal and we get to Jochef's friends' apartment really late. Now I don't think that I am a wimp by any stretch of the imagination and I have lived with "boy" boys and have lived up North in houses where I am the ONLY girl...but this was by far the most disgusting apartment I have ever had the misfortue of staying at. The boys were very nice but I'm not saying their apartment needed a "feminine touch" I'm saying it needed toilet paper. They also had 2 air conditioners going full blast that made the mean temperature in the apartment about 10 degrees Celsius... and there were no blankets. I slept in my clothes because there was no way I was changing in there. At one point Foreman kissed me and my reply was "there is absolutely nothing that turns me on about this place". But we survived (left at 830am but survived) and I eventually peed (after we left).

We spent the rest of the day walking around Old Montreal, going to all our favourite places. We bought Foreman new clothes and he looked soooo good all the girls in the changeroom were looking at him every time he came out (I will post another entry specifically about the clothes :). And that night Foreman, Moreass and I went out for dinner at the magnificent restaurant, Nantua. It was a wonderful dinner and it's always fun to go out for dinner with Moreass, especially in Montreal because he's fluent in French. It's always great to spend time with him.

After dinner Moreass went back to his evening of debauchery and Foreman and I went to the Hilton, which as you can imagine was significantly better than our previous evening. By Sunday, the boys had partied themselves out and were glad to come back home to Hamilton. So far Montreal is the first city I know that can wear my brother-in-law out. Vivre le Quebec!

My Visit with the Wiebel's

So this is 2 weeks ago now but I wanted to write a bit about my visit with the Wiebel's. They came in on the Greyhound on Friday - banjo in hand. Immediately when I saw them this dormant part of my spirit awoke. There's something about my friendship with Mr. Marmalade that is like no other relationship in my life. Our friendship is probably the relationship in my life that reminds me most of my relationship with God. I always experience God when I'm with him. He is such an incredible person - his creativity in unending and his capacity to be such an unassuming, beautiful spirit is inspiring to me. It took me a bit to warm to his wife (not because she's not lovely but because I'm protective of him) but once I did (this is a long time ago now) I find my friendship with her to also be very life-giving, a feminist like me, we have very similar views on a lot of things. On Friday we hung out around my kitchen table - eating a smattering of different things for dinner and then went out for beers at The Winking Judge. I'd never been there before and they have all these micr0brewery beers (mine was Raspberry beer!) and we just talked all night long about really important things in our lives. And we just slipped into that without any hesitation in small talk. On Saturday we had a nice leisurely breakfast and they went off to their conference and I went to the gym and did some things at home. That night I showed them our wedding album and talked them through it cause they wanted to "experience being there". Mr. Marmalade gave me his new CD from his group "The Whizbang Shufflers" (www.folkjam.com) and his video project he's doing with his brother - Secondhand Pants (www.secondhandpants.com). His commitment to his creativity is infectious. It was so amazing to spend time with them and be reminded of all the other parts of my life that I love - including my friendship with the Wiebels.

My First Death

So I knew it was going to happen. And it was really unfortunate that it was the only day I wasn't near the hospital in 6 weeks. But that's the way it went. A very lovely man - very similar to my father-in-law passed away of deterioration of his pulmonary fibrosis. Here's the obituary...

COLES, Leonard Frederick - It is with profound sadness we announce the passing of a great man, after a brief illness, at St. Joseph's Hospital on Saturday, August 12, 2006 at the age of 68. Beloved and devoted husband of Bev (nee McKinnon) for over 42 years. Loved father of Fred (Debbie), Darrin (Dianne) and Mel (Garry). Papa of Devon and Dalton. Brother of Lillian Stickland (late Dick), Marg Czeto (late Frank), Harold (Dawn), Freda Healy (late Brent). Will be sadly missed by many in-laws, nieces, nephews, Clifford and Bomber. Retired employee of Standard/Gillies Guy/Ultramar with 40 years of service. Foster parent with the Children's Aid Society for over 40 years and a volunteer at the Sackville Hill Seniors Centre. The family would like to thank all of their friends and family and all of the nurses (Amanda), doctors (Amanda) and CCU at St. Joseph's Hospital for all their loving care. At Leonard's request, cremation has taken place. Family will receive friends at CRESMOUNT FUNERAL HOME, 322 Fennell Avenue East on Wednesday from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Firestone Clinic (St. Joseph's Hospital) or the McMaster Children's Hospital.

I went to the funeral home just so I could have closure because after you spend weeks caring for someone and it's suddenly over it's probably one of the strangest feelings I've experienced. I only went for 15 minutes and when I walked in the family started crying and the daughter-in-law hugged me and said that Mr. C loved me so much and that it meant so much to them that I came and how I cared for him. And Mrs. C hugged me too and kept telling people how I was "Dr. Amanda" and how his oxygen saturations always went up went I walked in the room. It was weird because even though I know that there was nothing more I could have done for him since I was his "Doctor" I felt like I should have been able to make it better. And I couldn't. And I know that's how it works sometimes but doctors are REALLY bad at accepting death and acknowledging grief. I've been thinking about Patch Adams lately and how I appreciated how he did that (at least in the movie about his life) and I always want to remember that death is a part of life and to acknowledge that and walk through that with people is sacred and beautiful in its own rite.