Monday, September 12, 2011

To be, or...

We woke up and had a quick breakfast with Charlie (coffee = breakfast for me, sorry Mom!), then said our good-byes and headed down the highway, stopping halfway in Duncan for the obligatory grande bolds.  Another glorious day on Vancouver Island!

We got to Sandra and Landon's house and kept Amber company for the afternoon.  My portable office setting up residence on the patio, the sweet sounds of laundry in the background.

Realizing I forgot to mention a couple more things from our last day of the workshop.  First was the recording of Cameron's song.  As Cameron was sitting down and getting ready to perform, his toes started doing a little wiggly dance -- EXACTLY the same thing Don does when he's excited about something.  Must be genetic...  Second was when we were driving Sylvi home, and a big wild turkey nearly lost his life on our front bumper.  Damned thing wasn't afraid of cars, just waddled along the middle of the lane being a stupid turkey, before finally getting bored and waddling off to the side of the road.

So, back to Saturday...  Nothing terribly exciting to report about our dog-sitting time.  Don took Amber for a nice walk, she found something stinky to roll in, I washed it off, caught up on a whole lot of work -- but not nearly enough.

We were running late (surprise!) for our dinner with Ruth and family, so left a load in the dryer and headed to the hotel -- Sandra and Landon had a REALLY packed house, so we opted for the dirty little weekend (well, one day, anyhow) scenario at a nearby hotel.  We had picked the Best Western down at the harbour -- a little pricey but what the heck, we were treating ourselves for a night!  It was a fabulous room, with full kitchen and sitting area and private patio overlooking the garden -- much more than we needed for only one day, but would be fabulous for people staying in town for several days and not wanting to eat out all the time.

We ditched our instruments and headed over to Ruth's -- only about 20 minutes late, oops!  Nevermind, they were running behind, too. Ruth and Brian's youngest girl, Gabby (a whirling dervish if I've ever met one), greeted us in the courtyard, where she was playing with a gaggle of neighbours.  They live in a co-op, with all the houses' front doors opening up to this beautiful big courtyard with hugh playground for all the kids, where it's a constant buzz of activity and a collage of languages and cultures.  We headed to house #2 and up the stairs to meet Ruth's eldest, Courtney (who I last met when she was pre-verbal and breastfeeding -- oy!), Phoenix (second oldest, who had come out to hear us when we were here in February) and Aidan (who had just been out to see us in Duncan).  As if Brian weren't already surrounded by estrogen, they were also hosting a young woman on student exchange from Columbia, Julie.  Did I mention Brian is also an introvert?  And trying to quit smoking?  Geesh, power to you!

And so all nine of us had a lovely dinner together.  The older girls (women, did I mention I feel old?) peeled off shortly thereafter, Gabby went back outside to play for a while, leaving us time for a nice visit with the adults and Aidan (who seems to be a wise old woman trapped in a child's body, anyhow).  Bedtime for the girls and a couple of yawns from the adults (who had to get up in the wee hours to get this brood off to church) was our cue to bid adieu.

Night owls that we are, we decided to check out the patio near our hotel, overlooking the waterfront, and have a tasty beverage or two... or more (bad idea, but it was enjoyable at the time!).  The energy of the place was feeding us.  Midnight people watching.  Almost at the same time, we each realized -- we're city-dwellers.  And we really miss the city.  (Yes, I know Orillia is officially a city, but... it's just not.)  The conversation leads to how the big (medium) fish / small pond concept has allowed our music to stagnate, the opportunities and possibilities available where we are versus where we could be...  and we realize that guilt is probably the biggest thing holding us back.

Which is a big thing, indeed, because we're both really awesome at guilt.

So the question now is -- how much are we willing to sacrifice in order to alleviate our guilt, and would it ever be alleviated, anyhow.  And who wins when we live our lives based on guilt?

Yes, intellectually, we know the answers to all those questions.  Hearts are harder.

We wobble back to the hotel for an incredibly short sleep...

Wistfully,
Alyssa

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