to add to our weather madness, vancouver's street and sidewalks have been turned into ice rinks. and the north coast of bc is under a tsunami warning.

what's next?

the world, turned upside down

aka - mother nature, i'm sorry!

---

when i grew up in montreal, i was used to cold winters and lots of snow. recess was only spent inside if it was colder than -20 C outside and children used to play on huge snowbanks at the corner of street intersections. you'd go out looking like the michelin man because of all of the layers you had on. and the cold didn't stop us from doing anything.

over the years, the weather wasn't so cold and the snow wasn't as plentiful, but it was still montreal. i moved to toronto, where it was even warmer, and always appreciated montreal for the winter wonderland that it was. and when i moved back "home" at 19 and experienced a month of -30 C to -50 C weather, i took it as being part of the package and layered-on the clothes.

at 22 i moved to vancouver. it was wonderful to be in a city so warm in the winter time - it was quite the change. i'd talk to family back home and hear of the snow and cold and felt quite comforted with the rain and warmth caused by the pacific. every year it would snow - but only for one week and it never got too cold.

this year, though, everything changed. the weather in canada has been turn upside down and nothing makes sense anymore. last week, it was 16 C in montreal. thus far, it has only snowed there for a couple of days and it has already all melted away. and what is it like in vancouver? right now, we are under a blanket of snow. yes, it is pretty. but it's not normal. it's already snowed on more than 3 serious instances this year. we've had flooding in between. and serious wind storms from hawaii. we are loosing our trees as they keep falling over. we are turning into montreal. and montreal is turning into us.

mother nature: i'm sorry. i'm sorry about having abused your resources and believed that global warming would cause later. i'm sorry you're all out of whack. i wish i could fix you.

succumbing to the required new year's resolution

new year's res-o-lu-tion. Noun. def: 1. The state or quality of being resolute; firm determination. 2. A resolving to do something. 3. A course of action determined or decided on. 4. That thing you never get around to doing.

i usually try not to take new year's resolutions. the thing is, no one ever keeps them, including myself. it's just a thing we do to make ourselves (temporarily) feel better about ourselves and to brighten the outlook of the year ahead.

i tried to remember some of my past resolutions, and i can't even remember last year's. did i even make any? who knows. they couldn't have been that important if i ever got around to them.

but for some reason, this year, i feel like making a list. i've been charmed by the delusion. i want to be part of those who hope to better themselves, if even for a few days. i want to feel that i am heading in a direction that brings a happier life. i want that delusion, really. i swear, i'll pretend to forget all i know about resolutions. i want to be naïve. i want to play along.

so, for the new year, i want to:

* get back the muscles and cardio I had while traveling
* do more cultural things, from reading more to attending festivals
* learn to perfect the art of photography (aka, improve myself)
* be more social, more in touch with friends, meet new people
* be happy, do things to make myself happy, indulge, be selfish (ok, now it sounds like a bad resolution)
* cook more often
* save more money
* work on my goal to convert my travel journal into a book (not for publishing though)
* go on an other trip, even if short (yeah, right.)

well, that’s about all that i can think of right now. how long it will last for, i don’t know. will i remember to work on these things? god only knows. but for some reason, i do feel good about my resolutions. i feel like this year has a pleasant direction to it.