That's my story...and I'm stickin' to it!

I hate ice.
Snow and ice.
Rain, when it falls on the snow, and freezes the whole damned mess onto the pavement in front of my home.

It snowed here last week, a late-in-the-year snowfall to remind us that we do live in a 4-season climate.

Getting out of my car in front of my home after work on Thursday, I slipped and fell down hard on a sheet of ice and snow on the street.

As I slammed down onto the ice-coated pavement, my right foot caught on an ice edge, twisted inwards sharply...the pain was instantaneous.
That nausea-inducing pain immediately followed the loud snap that I heard at the same instant my foot turned inward and collapsed under the force of my weight!

Luckily, two of my friends were at my home, shoveling the snow off my driveway, and they rushed to help me. They also slipped and fell on the icy street, and finally we managed to stand upright, together.
I slipped and fell...again.

The doctor, nursing staff and x-ray tech were fantastic.
After x-rays, my doctor gave me the happy news that there were no broken bones.
"Good bones, Brenda! You have GOOD bones!", the medical staff exclaimed, again and again.

Rather than a break, I had severely sprained my ankle, causing major damage to the tendons and ligaments, as well as a gigantic amount of internal bleeding and bruising.

My doctor sent me home with a cast on my right leg, from my toes to my knee...my first cast ever.

"The fleas of life ~ you know, colds, hangovers, bills, sprained ankles and little nuisances of one sort or another.” ~ William Styron

Naps.
Little sleeps in the afternoon, around 1:30 P.M.
My grandmother was a great believer in naps.
Right after lunch, she'd clean up the lunch dishes and put away the leftover food, wipe the table and the counter clear of crumbs, sweep the floor and then head towards her bedroom.

Behind the closed bedroom door, she removed her fine daytime hairnet, replaced it with a sturdy heavy-duty night-time hairnet, lowered the window-blind, wrapped herself in her plaid wool laprobe and sitting on her bed, she'd gently lower herself to the mattress, relaxing in the very center of her 3/4 bed.

After closing her eyes, she would always raise her right arm and cover her eyes with her forearm to shut out the remaining light in her bedroom.

At exactly 3:00 P.M., my grandmother would wake up, get out of her cozy nest of bed-and-blanket, remove her sturdy heavy-duty night-time hairnet, replacing it with her fine daytime hairnet, raise the window-blind, straighten her bed coverings and open the bedroom door.

Straight to the sink, filling her old aluminum tea kettle to the brim with fresh-drawn cold water, she would set the kettle to boil on the old round-cornered Monarch stove. As she waited for the water to reach tea-temperature, she would fill a small china plate with her home-made date turnovers from the old green and white checkered cookie tin, choose her favorite china cup and saucer that her sister, Edna, had given her years ago and place everything on the kitchen table.

When the water threatened to bubble up and escape through the crooked spout of the kettle, she would rescue it from the heat very quickly, pour the boiling water over the heaping of tea leaves in her old brown china teapot, then set the pot on the trivet in the center of the kitchen table.

While the tea steeped, she walked to the refrigerator, opened the door and brought out the fresh cream skimmed from the morning's milking. Taking it to the table, pouring a fresh cup of hot, strong Lipton's tea into her china cup and stirring in a couple of spoonfuls of thick sweet cream, she picked out the fattest and chubbiest date turnover, placed it squarely in the center of another of her little china plates and was then ready for her daily ritual of an after-nap afternoon cup of tea.

Today, knowing my grandmother's penchant for sweets and anything sugary, I often wonder if her nap was a way for her to justify her petite pig-out afterwards. After a nap, a girl needs nourishment, after all!

More than likely, it was her way to escape from the world for a short while each day. Time just for her, without interruption and without fail. My grandmother really knew what she was doing, I think. Especially with the date turnovers...

“You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.” ~ Unknown

I have been helping an organization called Women for Women International.
I've been matched with an 18 year old woman in Kosova, and have started writing letters to her, letting her know that I am committed to sending her letters and gifts and cold, hard cash on a regular basis.
The cash makes a huge difference for her and her family who live with very little money and sporadic jobs, a dreadful situation left over from the fighting in the war-torn country where she was born.

Here's some very good information about this organization. Caroline Kennedy has written a feature article about the founder, Zainab Salbi. In the TIME Magazine May 1, 2008 issue, you'll find this great story. Here's the link...
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1736706,00.html?roi=echo3-2332533512-2081367-fb7f55b01c22a5918713aa8ca2ae43c5&

"Women for Women International and its founder and CEO Zainab Salbi were featured in an article by Caroline Kennedy in the latest issue of Time Magazine. Kennedy highlights how the most urgent tasks involved in rebuilding a post-conflict society fall to women."

Zainab Salbi, Women for Women International Founder and CEO, is a remarkable woman with a remarkable story. Read this and see if you don't agree with me.

Caroline Kennedy writes, "As Mother's Day approaches, it's worth remembering that of the more than 35 million people displaced by conflict... the vast majority are women and children."
So, for this Mother's Day, I'm going to help some moms in other parts of the world...my mom passed away a year and a half ago, and Mother's Day is always a sad and grieving day for me. Maybe this will ease that somewhat for me, and more importantly, I hope it gives some other moms a better life.
https://secure.entango.com/donate/WFW_MDgifts2008?roi=echo3-2332533512-2081368-f60b674d0390951e9739b7d203580794&wfw=MDGIV08Media
Here's their website...
http://www.womenforwomen.org/
"A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie." ~ Tenneva Jordan

I have the best kids in the Universe...

Yesterday, I planned a little trip to Whitecourt, a small town about 45 minutes away. There's a great store there called Theodore's Den...full to the brim with gorgeous treasures for home decor.

I called my daughter, who lives 4 blocks away from me, to see if she needed me to pick up anything for her while I was there. I told her my plans for the day, let her know that she could call me on my cell if there was anything she wanted me to get for her while I was there.

When I arrived at the store, I walked inside and was greeted by the owner, Jean Guy. He walked over to me and said, "You have a $150 shopping spree here today!"

"What are you talking about?" I asked him.

"Seriously, you really have a shopping spree here today...$150!" he replied. "Happy Mother's Day from your son and your daughter!"

I was so surprised...what a lovely treat for me! Theodore's Den is the kind of place where I will shop for a gift for a friend often, but I'll rarely look for luscious things for myself. This was the perfect present for me!

My daughter and my son are 2 of the most loving people I know. It's a true pleasure to have them as my children...I love them so much and they are amazing human beings. This has been a fantastic Mother's Day for me, and it's not about the gift my kids gave me, it's about the message and the thoughts behind the gift. They cared enough to spend some time figuring out the best way to wish me a Happy Mother's Day.
They succeeded 100%!

"Grown don't mean nothing to a mother.
A child is a child.
They get bigger, older, but grown.
In my heart it don't mean a thing."
~ Toni Morrison

Last summer, I decided to return to Paris.
It was a life-changing decision for me...my last trip to Paris in 2005 was completely consumed while dealing with a theft from my carry-on. I spent many hours over my precious few days in Paris sitting in a police station in the 18th Arrondissement. Considering that I only had 7 days in Paris, every second spent in a police station was another second I didn't get to spend with my son, exploring Paris for the first time.

Once I made the decision to go back to Paris again, I invited my 17 year old granddaughter to join me and she was ecstatic to be asked! Of course, she said yes!

Then, I began looking for a spectacular place for us to stay. I posted a question on my favorite travel site, Slowtrav, asking for a recommendation for favorite locations in Paris. The general consensus pointed me to the 6th Arrondissement, or St-Germain-des-Prés, as it is also called.

While browsing on VRBO, I found an apartment in the 6th that I absolutely fell in love with at first sight. I loved the location and the amenities of this place. Besides being a loft, it is newly renovated and gorgeously furnished. It also has two skylights and mile-high windows, with a view of the Eiffel Tower from the bedroom window. There is also wireless internet, free phone calls to anywhere in the Universe, an all-new stainless steel kitchen with every kind of necessity, including a washer for laundry!

This apartment is a former artist’s studio, located on the top floor of an elegant 19th century building with an elevator. An elevator! And air-conditioning for the hot summer days! It is right beside Jardin du Luxembourg, smack-dab in the center of a thousand great cafes and restaurants and close to the Seine, the Louvre and a ga-zillion other lovely places.
Needless to say, it's all about location, location, location!

The icing on the cake?
My son just told me he is coming back to Paris with us. That makes this trip perfection for me...having my kids and grandkids willing and excited about traveling with me. Amazing!

"Every city has a sex and an age which have nothing to do with demography. Rome is feminine. So is Odessa. London is a teenager, an urchin, and, in this, hasn't changed since the time of Dickens. Paris, I believe, is a man in his twenties in love with an older woman.” ~ John Berger

A Metro sign lights the way in the evening, along a Paris street

I've made a very difficult adjustment in the last few days.
I sprained my ankle a few weeks ago, and very badly, too.
It isn't healing as fast as I thought it would and that isn't what I want, a month before our trip to London and Paris.

After a lot of serious thinking over the last few days, I've come to the conclusion I'd better plan for a lot of riding around, rather than walking my butt off, like I usually do when I'm traveling. So, now I'm on the lookout for some different ways to see the city. Kinder-to-my-ankle ways, to be precise.

I've found http://www.fattirebiketoursparis.com/
online, and this company provides guided Segway Tours! I think I like this idea. Me and the granddarling on Segways, zipping along the streets of Paris. I think we will take a day tour, to get our first taste of the city, and later on, a night tour, simply to appreciate the beauty of the City of Lights after dark.

The hop-on hop-off city bus is another option...taking a bus that stops at various locations across London and Paris. This would allow us to ride the bus until we see a place that we want to explore. We can get off, walk around and check it out. Then, when I am ready for a feet-up rest, we can get back on the bus and ride for awhile longer!

So, there are options for me.
They are just not the options I was expecting, but they are good options, none-the-less.
Just like the weather, life is ever-changing and we must change with it, adapt to what life hands us. This way, we get to continue to enjoy the delectable banquet of life's joys spread out before us.

Travel means so much to me, so if this kind of change is needed for me to be comfortable and to take care of myself as my ankle continues to heal...no matter how slowly...I'm happy to make it.
Trust the flow, darling child, trust the flow!

"I think that travel comes from some deep urge to see the world, like the urge that brings up a worm in an Irish bog to see the moon when it is full." ~ Lord Dunsany

An ancient candelabra in the crypt area of Chartres Cathedral

Like the rest of the world, I've just learned that Senator Edward Kennedy has been diagnosed with a malignant brain cancer. Shock, sadness, heartbreak...for this man has been to the wall, been through the fire many times and is still standing. No one in my memory has lived through so much tragedy.

Ted and his siblings have changed the face of politics as we know it, and the face of humanity as we experience it.

His older brother, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was an amazing person who opened doors for so many people in his years as a senator and a president. I so clearly remember the exact moment when I heard that he'd been murdered.

I was 18, married and expecting my first child. I'd just made lunch, then put my feet up and was settling down for a little afternoon nap. When I turned on the TV, I saw the news flash across the black and white TV screen...

"As The World Turns” was on, and the day's program was interrupted by a news bulletin. Walter Cronkite said:
“Here is a bulletin from CBS News. In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting.”

I was in total shock and disbelief.
President Kennedy?
Someone shot him?
How is that possible?

Then the fatal follow-up news:
“From Dallas, Texas, the flash - apparently official - President Kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. Central standard time, 2 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.”

Something in our lives died that day, along with this man who, with his wife and their young children, had caught our attention and made us watch what was transpiring in the political landscape in the United States.

I remember watching the next few hours and days on TV...scenes of John's younger brother, Robert, accompanying his widowed sister-in-law and his brother's casket back to Washington. I cried as I sat stunned, seeing Edward, the youngest child in the Kennedy family, walking with his other brother, Robert and his sister-in-law, Jackie. I remember that he looked like he had been struck dumb, like he was going through the motions...he'd just lost his big brother, in the cruelest kind of way.

Wednesday, 5 June 1968...I was sitting in the dining room, visiting with a girlfriend and we saw the news on TV, this time in colour, announcing that Senator Robert Kennedy had been shot while campaigning for the Democratic nomination for President.

Sooner than we could imagine, the news came that Senator Kennedy had died from his wounds.

Another state funeral, another brother who had been murdered, long before his natural time to die.
Another image of Teddy Kennedy grieving another heartrending loss.
An image of Teddy giving the eulogy for his older brother, Robert.

Today, hearing the news that Ted Kennedy has a malignant brain tumour, my mind flashed back to all of the collective images in my memory of his loses...John, Robert, Jackie, his dear nephew, John Jr., his mother, Rose, his father, Joseph, and so many more.

I wonder if the cancer growing in his brain might consist of a culmination of all of the energy and pain from the horrors and gut-wrenching sorrows he's had to deal with in his life.
Who knows?
Who knows.

God speed, Teddy.
God bless you and keep you real good, now...y'hear?

“The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.”
~ Edward Kennedy

There ARE miracles everywhere...especially when looking for seat sales...

Seat sales.
There's nothing better for my frugal nature than to have my patience rewarded by finding a seat sale with an airline.

When I'm planning a trip, the very first thing I do is book my accommodation, because the most important thing for me is to have a gorgeous little apartment or B & B to stay in while I'm traveling.

The very next thing I do is book my flights.
Sitting like a vulture, watching for those elusive seat sales, I check the websites of Air Canada and Westjet several times each day. I know that Air Canada posts their seat sales and special fares on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, usually late in the evening. I also know that their competitor, Westjet, follows hot on their heels. So, I'm like a bird-dog, constantly checking, checking, sniffing for a sale.

Et, voila!
It pays off in spades, this year!
I finally found a day flight from Toronto to London, England for $199 one way. That was a 5 star day for me! I almost missed it.

A few weeks ago, after my usual many-times-a-day checking the internet, I'd gone to bed to read the latest Jodi Picoult novel. In the middle of a dramatic moment in the book,it dawned on me that I hadn't done my usual midnight flight search that evening. I groaned, crabbily scrunched myself out of my warm, cozy bed and waddled sleepily to my laptop. As Air Canada's website opened, I punched in my travel dates and hit 'Enter.' There, right before my eyes, a delicious seat sale had just been posted! Toronto to London for the amazing price of $199 each way was exactly what I'd been waiting for.

Now, I'll admit...when all the taxes, airport improvement costs, assorted fees and charges had been added up, the flight was no longer $199. More like $979.56 return. Still, a far cry from the $1600+ I'd been seeing for weeks. I'm blissfully happy, the grand-darling's thrilled and Air Canada has 2 more paying passengers to add to their roster!

Toronto to London...that's all well and good, but we live near Edmonton, Alberta. That's not even close to Toronto! So, I've started all over again, scrounging the websites, looking for that miraculous seat sale...
Edmonton to Toronto, Edmonton to Toronto. I've seen the fares go from $239 to $279 to $309...and I've been kicking my Little Irish butt for not snapping up the flights when they were $239.

This afternoon, while taking a break from my clients at work, I idled my way over to my laptop, Googled 'Air Canada' and screeched out loud, "Seat sale! Seat sale!" Kristen, my front office person asked me what was going on.

"There it is, a seat sale to Toronto!" I shouted. "$199 one way, finally!"

I quickly called my favorite travel person in the Universe, Ryan at Flight Center, I asked him to book the Edmonton to Toronto portion of this trip...$301 with all taxes, for each of us! Perfection.

Now, I'll go back to patiently watching for the return portion of this trip to pop up in seat sale mode, and I'll do this all over again.
See, it's definitely worth it! Even though it means spending a few hours on the internet, keeping a watchful lookout for the sales, it makes a huge difference in the end result of the cost of a trip. Less cashola spent on our flights equals more dineros to spend on good food, a special tour, a train trip out of the city to Giverny.

So, our apartment's booked, our flights are almost completely booked, and all that's left to do is to gather my various little pots of money together and see if it's enough to take me there and back again. A small cache in a savings account, the $200 I've been saving from a generous and appreciative client...it all counts. Added together, it should just about be enough...
Paris and London, we're on our way!

"When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money." ~ Susan Heller

Chestnut trees in the springtime in Paris...