Trip of my Lifetime?

I'M BACK!!!  I've been humming & hawing over posting for two weeks now.  Mostly because I've been distracted by my life.  I've talked about my trip to Vancouver in a couple previous posts, most recently the last one.  I was excited to go and see family and on the other hand, I was nervous too.  Thankfully, there were only a few moments where I felt like the 'fat one'. Usually it was when I was looking through pictures or when we were getting ready to go out. My sister would just throw something on and look beautiful and I was painfully trying on everything I'd packed.  Other than those moments, I was totally fine.  I actually managed to make it through 11 days of vacation and only gained one pound!!  I count that as a huge success.  Since I've been back I haven't been counting points or consistently exercising and I've just maintained my weight.  I have to get back to actively trying.

As for my trip, it was amazing.  Perhaps the trip of a lifetime.  Seems a little dramatic seeing as how I just went to Vancouver to visit family.  However, I had not seen them in a minimum of 10 years.  Some of them over 20 years.  I was expecting to visit, have a fun time, and be ready to come home.  I'm always ready to come home when I've been away. Even for 5 days.  This time though, I never wanted to come home.  The connections that I made and the relationships that were renewed made me want to stay there forever.  I'd never known what it was like to be in a room full of people and have them all share my last name. Seems like a silly thing but it was very cool.  After a few days, I realized that for them the trip wasn't just about visiting with me, it was about selling me on Vancouver.  They took me everywhere everyday and I was exhausted but by day two I was in love with it and picturing myself living there.  I was actually born there so when I arrived at the airport, they were all saying "welcome home!'  I thought it was funny at first but I eventually realized it was true.

My sister and I cried parting ways and the whole flight home I was thinking about how and when I could be living there.  I was thinking about what I would be giving up versus what I would be gaining, what I have tying me here and so on.  What I came up with is that the only thing tying me to Winnipeg is my job.  That used to be enough for me.  The security of knowing I have a good job, I can pay my mortgage, I'll have a good pension and I won't have to seriously worry about money.  But is that enough??  I finally decided that it's not.  I do have a few close friends here and a younger brother & sister here.  When my brother & sister were younger, I wouldn't have left.  But they are 21 & 24 now.  They're grown and I have to stop feeling responsible for them.  As for my friends, yes, I'll miss them.  But honestly, I don't actually SEE a whole lot of them.  They have families and lives and they've moved away and come back and lived their lives and I wasn't a factor in that because it was their life.  Why shouldn't I be doing the same?  Living my life!  Right now and for the last long while, I haven't had much of a life.  And if not now, then when?  I'm not married, I'm not dating anyone, I don't have kids.  Now is the perfect time.

When I got home, I started looking around my place and taking stock of what I would take and what I would get rid of.  It's amazing what you're willing to part with when faced with moving it across the country.  Purging is so freeing!!!  Right now, I don't think I will be moving till June 2012, the earliest.  It seems so far away but when you think about how fast time goes, I think it will fly by.  Except for that nasty winter part in the middle, that will drag. I've been thinking about what I will do for work and I've put myself on a job alert for a utility company there that is the same utility I work for here.  I've also considered the possibility of going back to school.  If I'm going to start over, why not START OVER?  In high school, I wanted to be a pharmacist and I did really well in all the sciences in high school and then bombed in university and I just gave up that idea.  There is a Pharmacy Technician course offered at the college in Vancouver and the wait list is a year so I applied for the September 2012 start.  It was only $30 to apply so worst-case scenario, I lose $30 if I decide not to go that route.  While this is all extremely scary for me, EXTREMELY SCARY, it is also very exciting and I know the rough part of a move will only be for a short time.  I'm a creature of habit and I know it would be very easy for me to slip back into my life as it is and forget about all the feelings and joy I had while I was away but I'm doing my best not to let myself forget.  I've been in contact with my sisters daily, going through different sections of my condo and getting rid of stuff.  I framed my favorite pictures from the trip and put them on my wall and pictures of all my brothers and sisters on my mantle.  Daily reminders of what I want so I don't get complacent.

Okay, so now that I've caught you up on what I've been distracted by, I'll share some of my favorite pictures from the trip that have made my Vancouver wall!

My sister Erin & I

Erin, David, Me

My brother David & I

Me & Erin

Erin, niece Adrianna, me, Heather

Me & my sister Heather

My brother Mark & I

Brandywine Falls

Very cool double rainbow on the way to Whistler.

AMAZING SUSHI!

The train, it was the first time I'd been on one.

Queen Elizabeth Park, I fell in love with it.

I also watched three hockey games while I was there and I've watched the last three since I've been home with great passion.  I don't know how they did it but I'm hooked and I'm pissed I didn't buy a t-shirt while I was there :)

Well, that's it for now.  Hopefully my next post will be weight loss based!!  I'm going to start counting my points again Monday and breaking out the Zumba for the Wii!  Now if you'll excuse me, I have scads of blogs to catch up on :)