Back Home Again

I'm back from Maple Ridge! Taking the bus turned out to be very easy. It seemed to take a long time, but that was mostly due to the wait at Braid Station - I was 25 minutes early for the bus! Anyway, I listened to my tunes most of the way and my MP3 player worked extremely well.

When I got to Maple Ridge I got to see my stepmom's photos of her trip (along with my stepsis) to Nova Scotia to visit my stepbrother Sean and his wife Holly. They got some great pictures! I also found out that my stepsister has a new, serious boyfriend, which is great. After looking at the pictures we went out for lunch at ABC - Yummmm. Afterwards we decided to stop at London Drugs to look at picture frames. We couldn't find any we liked there, so we went to Zellers and each bought a few frames (I need some to hang my degrees, and I want to FINALLY hang some family photos around my apartment).

After shopping, we went to the hospital to see my dad. He has a private room in the new building and it's really nice! Lots of wood and muted colours. Each room has a "memory box" outside - a locked wooden cabinet with a glass door and three glass shelves for families to put mementos and stuff in. My stepmom wants to put some of my dad's prettiest beer steins in the box, which I think will look really nice. The room inside is a little plain right now, but Barbara and I decided where to hang some photos and stuff, so soon it should have a little more personality. We stayed and fed Dad his dinner, then we left and Barbara drove me home. All in all it was a good visit. Jennifer and her husband are going next Sunday. Hopefully the pictures will be up by then and there'll be a plant in the room.

I didn't even think about it until we were halfway home, but while I was in Maple Ridge I should have stopped to buy some of the delicious lox that my stepmom gets at the German butcher. But we came to an agreement in the car that she would stop during the week and buy me some and send it home with Jennifer next week. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. The only slight wrinkle in the plan is that Jennifer HATES fish, so I don't think she'll be overly thrilled to have to take it home with her and then possibly bring it to work with her one day in the middle of the week in order for me to pick it up from her. Jennifer, you'd be the best sister in the world if you helped me out with this!