Category Archives: Canada

Canada, William

Love on the Rocks

Now, I think I’ve made my feelings on this clear, I thought I did. However, Wm and I had the following conversation yesterday.

Wm: Hey, they’ve announced the locations for the first 24 Target stores coming to Canada.

Me: Really? Are any of them near us?

Wm: I don’t know, I didn’t  look.

Me: ……… DO YOU EVEN LOVE ME AT ALL????

 

The answer, btw, is Yes, he loves me. The other answer is No, every single one of those 24 Target stores are in Ontario. You think they would split them up among the all the provinces. Stupid Toronto.

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Canada, William

Can This Marriage Be Saved?

About a month ago, I was down south, in Seattle, because I had some appointments. I mentioned something to Wil about running an errand at Target. The following conversation ensued:

Wm: Hey, did you hear, Zellers bought Target.

Me: No they didn’t.

Wm: Yes, they did.

Me: No, if anything, Target bought Zellars. They were trying to do that several years back.

Wm: Whatever. The point is, Target is coming to Canada. I heard something about it a couple of weeks ago.

Me: Now I know you are lying.

Wm: No I’m not.

Me: You are because you know me, we’ve been married for 3 and a half years. You know my feelings about Target. There is no way you’d let that news sit for TWO FUCKING WEEKS without telling me.

Can you believe that shit? It is true, tho. They won’t be here until 2013, and chances are all 220 of the first stores will be surrounding Toronto and in Edmonton. Everything is either in Toronto or in Edmonton. At the West Ed.

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Apple, Canada

Grabbing some Face Time

For Christmas, I got to upgrade my iPhone 3G to an iPhone 4. If you are from Canada, you probably know that took some effort on my part.

The iPhone 4 came out in Canada in what… July? It STILL takes a great deal of patience to get one, if you are trying to upgrade on an existing plan. If you go to a Rogers store, unless they’ve just received their shipment within the last 5 minutes, you won’t find one. And even if they did receive a shipment, it’s only a few phones and, chances are, there are people already there waiting for those few phones.

The place to go is the Apple Store in downtown Vancouver. The time to go is hours before opening. Actually, it’s not as bad as it was several months ago. People were lining up at 3, 4, 5 o’clock in the morning! Nowadays, you have to get there about 8 to 8:30. They open at 10. Someone comes out before opening and sets up appointments, they can only do so many upgrades a day. That’s the thing, they have plenty of stock now, but they can only do so many upgrades a day.

We got there about 8:15, and I thought it would be at least 9:30 before someone came out to make appointments, but they came out at 8:45. My appointment wasn’t until 1pm. But, finally, I got iPhone 4! The people at the Apple store are troopers. It’s crowded, people are frustrated and every single person I spoke with was patient and cheerful. The guy who hooked me up told me I have an American accent. Nu-uh. I’m PacNW baby, we have an anti-accent.

I have not yet tried out Face Time, but by playing around with the camera I can see there is no way to do it and not look like crap. So don’t use Face Time to set up a first date or anything. But if you can handle crappy, I’m available for Face Time.

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Canada

2010 Winter Olympic Coverage

I’m not all that into it. That’s my coverage. I watched a little last week. I saw Shawn White, Lindsay Vonn and the guy who won the gold in Men’s Figure Skating. I can’t remember his name. I remember Johnny Weir, tho. I like that kid, he’s entertaining.

I talked some smack about the US – Canada quarter finals game last week. Wil and I had a contest, loser had to make dinner. But the truth was, I was only keeping an eye on the score online. I was having a Harry Potter movie marathon and Wil was playing the Sims. 
I’m so happy for Canada, not only have they won their first gold during hosted Winter Games, but they’ve won a ton of them. Which is wonderful. But today… today is the final show down, isn’t it? The US vs. Canada. Gold Medal Hockey game. Do I root for my homeland? Or do I root for my adopted home, for Canada to have, what would have to be, their greatest triumph?
What are you nuts? I’m rooting for America, baby. I am what I am. We’ll see who makes dinner tonight. 
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Canada, Immigration

We are quicksilver, a fleeting shadow, a distant sound… our home has no boundaries beyond which we cannot pass. We live in music, in a flash of color… we live on the wind and in the sparkle of a star!

Wow. The blog has been silent awhile, hasn’t it.

I’m leaving for Wa tomorrow. Not as expected. I’m going to be traveling down without Wil. There has been a death in my family, and it’s important that I go and be with the people who need me right now. Death in the family is one of the emergencies that should allow me to travel alone, and still get back into Canada. Hopefully.

Wil does not have his passport yet, it should be arriving by registered mail on Friday the 6th. So he will be coming down on the 7th and we’ll drive home together on the 8th. So I will be with my husband when I get back to Canada, however, not the entire time I travelled. Nonetheless, my lawyer said I have a good reason. Worst case scenario, I will not be let back in. At this point, I am very close to getting my VISA. It would suck, but not as much as if it were six months ago or last year.

I did receive my work permit. On my work permit it states “Application for PR status has received initial approval.” PR = Permanent Residence. That works in my favor as well.

I don’t feel quite as excited as you’d think I would feel. Well, one – it’s a death in the family. And I am quite shocked and saddened right now. Two – I am paranoid. I think I will always be paranoid until I have my visa. I’m quite sure that Wil will get tired of all the strategizing I will do next week, via email, on his entrance into the states. “If they say this, answer that. Don’t say this unless they ask. Carry X,Y and Z with you. Make a copy of that thing.” And so on. Why I should worry about his entrance into the states is beyond me. Canadians come down to the states ALL THE FREAKIN’ TIME. Plus, he’s a grown up. Maybe because things went all wonky for me coming into Canada two and a half years ago, I’m always going to be a freak about it. I hope not, because I have hopes for us going back and forth as we like many times. God forbid I turn into some kind of anal retentive freak about it.

Three, I will miss him. I always thought when I got married I would have to marry someone who is SUPER understanding because I would be FIERCELY independent. None of that mooshy stuff when one of us had to travel with the other. But it’s been two and a half years of pretty much constant companionship. One time, Wil went to Victoria for a couple of nights without me. But other than that, not a day has gone by, you know? So, I’m really going to miss him. I’m already missing him and I haven’t left yet. Turns out, I’m mooshy.

He, however, will probably beer drinking no pants boy parties with video games and cigarettes and no girls allowed.

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Canada

Happy Thanksgiving

To my Canadian friends and family. 

Thanksgiving feels different here. I mean, yes, it’s earlier, which feels off. It seems that most of the people I know have their Thanksgiving dinner at any point this weekend. Now, this is just my observation, and may not be correct, but I feel like it may not be quite as big a deal here as it is in the US. Thanksgiving in the States is pretty much the biggest holiday of the year. Plus, it kicks of the Holiday Season in general. So on Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, you go directly into Christmas Spirit. 
Ok, it sounds like I am challenging Canadian Thanksgiving to a Holiday Fight. Correct me if I am wrong about Canadian Thanksgiving. It’s just my observation.
Nonetheless it still seems to be a time when families gather and give thanks, and that’s what is important. My family came up to celebrate and early birthday dinner with me, Wil and the Stepdot. And I’m so grateful for that. 
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Canada, Immigration, William

A truly thankful Thanksgiving

I just got a call from a nice lady in the immigration offices in Alberta. We’ll call her Jane. Because for some reason, I don’t want to use her real name. She had some questions that Wil and I need to clear up for her, by writing a short paragraph of explaination and faxing it to her. Easy peasy.

Jane is a very nice lady, I think she liked me. She spent several minutes talking to me about my application and what the next steps will be. She told me to go ahead and fax her an application for a work permit! I was thrilled to hear that because months of unemployment for Wil, and years for me, have taken a toll. Of course, I don’t know how helpful it will be in today’s economy. I suppose it depends on what I am willing to do. What I am NOT willing to do is phone support. Neither is Wil, for that matter.

To make matters better, I talked to her about traveling across the border and she told me that I could travel across the border as long as Wil was with me. My application came from within Canada because it is a hardship to be away from my husband. He supports me. This fact makes it risky to cross into the states without him. How much of a hardship could it be if I left the country without him. But if I am with him…

This means as soon as we get Wil’s passport, we will be able to go to the States. And, as long as any working schedules allow, we can go home for American Thanksgiving. I wouldn’t think this would make me cry, but all of the sudden I found myself crying. Wil is not home right now, which is probably for the best, because I am sure he wouldn’t know quite what to do with me in this state.

Someone is processing my application! Soon, I may be able to work! I will, most likely be home for Christmas! ( to quote a famous song)

I do not know how long it will take to get my approval letter. (at that point I take it to the local immigration office and apply for my card.) I am just so thrilled to have this news. These steps to take.

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Canada

I know how to spell Saskatchewan now.

We returned from our trip on Monday evening. Sunday we drove from Moose Jaw to Calgary, and then home the next day. I returned suffering from anti-depressant withdrawal, which was a bit like being stoned. Not entirely unpleasant, but not conducive to safe driving either. Wil returned with a sickness which we refer to as either a Prairie Sinus Infection or The Bacon Flu. (Fully cooked, it is not as dangerous as the Swine Flu.) 

We are both better now. 
Moose Jaw was an interesting place. First of all, the prairies are gorgeous. I know a lot of people would concentrate on the flatness of it all, but it was beautiful. I will say this, for a girl who’s number one allergy is grass, Moose Jaw at harvest time is not the healthiest place to be. But it was fun being in a different climate and terrain. 
Moose Jaw has a series of tunnels underneath it and there are two tours centered around them. One is the story of Chinese immigrants who lived and worked them, running steam laundries and trying to pay their “head tax” for immigration. This is the one that my new-to-me sister-in-law called “history.” 
The second tour has been labeled “legend,” or possible “wishful thinkingtainment.” The story goes that, during prohibition, Al Capone spent a goodly amount of time in MJ, hiding from his troubles and running booze. So much so that he called Little Chicago. This is the tour that we took, as half the party had seen the Chinese immigrant stories. It was a slice of theatre. 
Look, maybe Al Capone hung out in Moose Jaw, did some business, who knows. It seemed short on fact and long on tales of bootlegging in general. We were continuously promised large quantities of booze and a powerful drunk. Much to half our party’s dismay, that part turned about to be theatre as well. We had to buy our own booze after the tour. 
The guy who took us through the tunnels was heeee-sterical. I kept thinking how my family would have ate it up. They would have been his favorite type of audience. Loud and participatory.  
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Canada

Greetings from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

Our trip has been extended and taken a little detour. It’s been a long day and I am very tired. But for the next four nights I am staying in a double wide trailer that is nicer and larger than my apartment. Which begs the question…

Why don’t I live in a double wide trailer? There are no tornados in British Columbia. I think I would be safe. 
Tomorrow we are going to go shopping at Wal-Mart. It’s a whole new lifestyle!
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