Welcome to Kat's Boulevard of Ottawa Memories...
It has been quite a surreal time so far. I finally got a chance to walk down my old neighbourhood (the Glebe if you ever get to venture to Ottawa). I checked out the street I lived on (First Avenue and O'Connor)... and I even walked up to the house I lived in when I was a teenager. Wow. I have lived in so many places after that house - Amman, Jordan... Italy... New Brunswick... then British Columbia! I have not stepped foot in Ottawa in so long, so to see the place where I spent a lot of my teenager growing pains gave me a huge rush! Of what?? Not sure yet but I'll pin it down as I explore the city more.
While I was on First Avenue, I looked down a the sidewalk, looking at the writting the kids wrote when the sidewalks were being repaved. And I noticed something that made me laugh - it was my name and my brother Sean's!! We wrote our names down in the wet pavement back in 1998 near a driveway in our neighbourhood. Living in so many different places can really make you forget the small silly things you used to do as a kid that helped you become the person you are today. I didn't even remember writting that all until I actually looked at it. I even remembered the fight Sean and I had that day, I think it was about me playing too much Sega Genesis (an older video game console) and Sean didn't get to play all day. Ha ha ha!!!
After that, I took a bus downtown to check out the good ol' parliament building. I've forgotten how overwhelmingly huge that place is!! And it definitely looks really cool at this time of year because they light up the whole building to make it look pretty Festive for the Holiday Season.
I then walked down Elgin Street... and more memories started coming up. Mostly about a real bad ex boyfriend I had when I was 16 but I'll change our focus on this one park that my dad used to take me to when I was 3 years old. There's nothing special about it really, just that THAT was the place my dad took me to play with the other kids. Weird. I went in the park to see if the slide my dad always took me to was there, but it was changed to a safer, plastic slide. Hehehe! Ah well, still good to relive those memories!
One turn down memory lane was meeting up with some old college friends who live here. We had a great time catching up, but really it was like we just saw each other yesterday. We hung out for a few hours... and had to try to make it back home in the freezing rain. On the way over to meeting them, I fell down twice because everything was covered in a sheet of ice! I was proud to say that I did not break the bottle of wine I brought over to them though!
The final turn down memory lane was visiting my old high school, Canterbury High ... that I have not seen in about 8 years, with my high school best friend, Kinga. Just walking around the school itself and looking around, we were able to remember the smallest things from a certain corner. We even looked in the cafeteria from outside and remembered the EXACT spot where we used to sit. We looked at the stairway where we used to pass notes to each other in between classes. We remembered how I helped her cheat on a Math test and my formulas were COMPLETELY wrong and the teacher gave both of us detention (we NEVER got detention. Yeah that was funny!). And even after all this time, we still are friends. Which is awesome 'coz I kept travelling around and I lots touch with mostly everyone from that high school.
Well, Christmas is now here. It's going to be mostly family time. I cannot tell you guys enough how happy I am to be here. Just to be with family, see the places that I used to go as I was growing up... I honestly have forgotten a lot of who I was, and to be reminded of how I grew up really centered me. And well, I can honestly say that I turned out pretty awesome! LOL! Just kidding! It's been a great visit! The only thing is that I didn't get to see my brother Sean... who's in New Brunswick right now. I miss him. He's a good kid! But soon enough we'll all be together! 'Cosz the 4 of us is awesome, but we are missing one big part of it!
Have a great Christmas guys!! Take Care!!
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