Life.

Utter joy and complete frustration often seem to go hand-in-hand. As I get older, I realize more and more how important it is to learn to put the joyful things in the forefront; to allow the positive parts of life to guide you when struggles try to drag you down.

For those who don't know yet, Ben and I are expecting our first addition to the family this November and are beyond excited!! I will be 16 weeks tomorrow, which means baby is about the size of an avocado, and is beginning to hear my voice, which I think is just the coolest thing in the whole world!

But with great joy often comes challenges, and we now find ourselves in the midst of what I like to call the great mothball fiasco of 2010. Yup, you heard right: mothballs. Whatever you do, do NOT buy these poisonous, stinky balls of chemical toxins. It is not worth it!

After returning home from a fabulous European vacation to our rental, which is the main floor of a cozy house, a place we have loved living for the past 10 months, we began to notice an unpleasant odor. New tenants had moved into the basement rental while we were away, and we chalked the smell up to cleaning or hair products, maybe some strong-smelling cooking, and assumed it would go away.

By day three, the smell had become unbearable and and taken on a chemical, hair-burning sort of twinge, and we had to get our landlord involved. Upon talking with the downstairs tenants, we learned that in order to kill a few ants, they thought it would be a good idea to put mothballs ALL OVER their unit. In the carpets, along the floors, god only knows where else. The tenant cleared them out, and we saw her walking to the garbage with an armload of mothballs. But the fumes from these things do not go away. They have not diminished at all in the four days since the mothballs were removed, and from what I have read, they might linger around for another month, or forever.

Ben and I had begun coughing, getting headaches and our eyes were irritated after sleeping in our home all night. A quick google search revealed that mothballs are highly toxic and are only intended to be used in a closed, airtight container. If ingested by a small child or dog, they are fatal. And this tenant has two young daughters. In the U.S., it is illegal to use mothballs in any way other than directed (ie, other than in CLOSED containers).

Needless to say, Ben and I have "evacuated" to a friend's house down the street. We had to hurriedly move all of our clothing and furniture into the garage, as they were beginning to absorb the fumes, and in a huge rush, we have now signed a lease at a new condo and will be moving in in two weeks.

Yep, life happens, and this has been one of the most stressful and bizarre weeks of my entire life. But the moment that brought me back to my center, to my zen? At my midwife appointment this week, when I got to hear baby's strong, fast heartbeat. In the end, baby is what really matters, and we can get through a few weeks of struggles if it means having a safe, chemical free home for our little one to spend his or her first months in. All I need to do when I feel stressed is try to remember that little heart beating in there, the tiny miracle forming inside me, or to look at my ultrasound photo and see that beautiful little creature!

Just Another Day in Calgary

This was forwarded to my email account today - no joke, downtown Calgary had a very special visitor on this beautiful May afternoon. He even received a police escort. This is just a few blocks from my office!

(In the second photo, look toward the silver car in the middle.)

Nashville Will Rise Again!

It has been hearbreaking to watch from afar as my hometown has been engulfed in floodwaters these past few days. And yet while my heart continues to hurt for the immeasurable loss, it also swells with pride at the resilience and kindness of Nashvillians. As has been pointed out by other bloggers, Nashville has not experienced the looting and crime one might expect in such a crisis. Instead, everybody has worked together as one, not wasting a moment to help their neighbors, friends and strangers. And that, my friends, is why I still believe in southern hospitatliy.

Unfortunately, it seems Ben and I are taking on the task of single-handedly telling Calgarians what has happened. The Canadian media did (and continues to do) an abysmal job of covering this news - as in, I have been scouring the country's top news media websites all week and not found even a shred of coverage about our beloved Nashville. The Calgary Stampede uses the name "Nashville North" for its main concert venue, but ironically they seem to know very little about our great city, or to grasp the loss happening there now, and I find that a hard pill to swallow.

I wrote the below email and sent it out to our entire office of 500 people, hoping to reach at least a few - and at least a few have talked to me since, telling me that after taking the time to look at photos, they were moved almost to tears and generously offered me their support and sympathy. But we will have to make a lot more noise to get the support we need. If you are outside of Nashville, please consider doing the same. Let people know what is happening, and ask for help.

Like so many of us, I remember well the Nashville tornado of 1998, and I also remember the way locals rallied together and all did our part to rebuild the city. I have no doubt whatsoever that the same will happen again. You don't always realize how much a certain place means to you until you see it harmed. You don't know what great loss is like until your own friends and family are touched by it. And you don't realize how strong and how unified those same friends, family members, co-workers, acquaintances and strangers can be until faced with a crisis.

Nashville, you are my home, where my heart remains, and you will not be changed by this catastrophe - if anything you will come out stronger and better than ever.

And here's the email I sent out:

Hi All,


My husband Ben Reeves and I both call the city of Nashville, Tennessee, our home. Probably some of your favorite music, country or not, came out of Nashville!

Record flooding hit Middle Tennessee this weekend, and yesterday President Obama declared half of Tennessee's counties to be in a state of disaster. The massive extent of the damage has been overshadowed by other news, but this video shows what we are up against: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/36927001#36927001. Find more up-to-date info at www.tennessean.com.

Thousands in Nashville, including some near and dear to Ben and I, have lost homes, businesses, belongings and even loved ones. Never dreaming of a disaster of this magnitude, most do NOT have flood insurance and have a very long road to recovery.

Almost 30 people have lost their lives, shelters are filled to capacity, power is out in downtown and water supply is low. Much of historic downtown and entire neighborhoods are still under ten feet or more of water. Damage is estimated to top $1 billion, and much of the destruction is still being revealed as waters recede.

It is hard to understand the impact of a natural disaster until it strikes home. It will take money and time to restore Middle Tennessee and its people, but with help, this resilient region will bounce back!

If you would like to help Tennesseans affected by the flood by making a financial contribution, we would be very grateful. We would be equally grateful for help in spreading the word about what is happening in our fabulous hometown. Below are some organizations accepting donations:

American Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org/
Hands on Nashville (an excellent organization): www.hon.org
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee: http://www.cfmt.org/floodrelief/

Many thanks for taking a moment to read this, I know your time and resources are valuable!!

Jennifer

The Power of Music

The power of music to transform you to a different time and place always amazes me, and often catches me by surprise. While riding the bus this morning, still reeling from the shock of yesterday’s spring-time snow, my iPod shuffled to the song “Kids” by MGMT (listen here: http://tinyurl.com/2vglyg) , and suddenly I found myself in an emotional vortex of the past 18 months (we have been in Calgary for 18 months!!!) If you must know, I almost teared up as this song brought happy memories flooding to the surface!

I will forever love and associate this song with crisp winter ski days, blasting it on the car speakers as me, Ben and various friends watched the sun rise over the Canadian Rockies and got our adrenaline pumping for another day on the ski hill. It is also the background music on one of my favorite ski movie scenes, and I can feel the excitement each time I hear the opening of this song, which starts quietly and slowly gives rise to a pulsating rhythm.

Riding along in that crowded, bumpy bus this morning, all of these thoughts and feelings swirled to the surface in no more than a nanosecond, and then quickly gave way to my next memory of this song: our first visits to Almudena’s cozy apartment, when she played the MGMT CD all night long (I think it was the only CD she brought with her from Spain!) while we ate gazpacho and Spanish tortilla, and drank red wine and whiskey & cokes and had impromptu dance parties and explosive board games.

And of course I could not traipse down the memory lane of this addictively poppy and peppy tune without flashing back to last summer’s Bonnaroo, when we finally saw MGMT in person. The concert was after 2am and we were so tired we could probably have laid down in the Bonnaroo mud and slept all night, but we made it through at least a few songs!!

Somehow this unassuming band has become the anthem of my time in Canada. One close friend who we began this journey with (Alicia) has already moved onward to London, and our other amazing friend Almudena leaves us in two short weeks, so perhaps nostalgia is running strong at the moment. Regardless, I could not help but arrive at work, on what was beginning as a long and dreary day, feeling eternally grateful for the experiences I’ve had here so far, and for the people I have met.

I know that Ben and I will look back for the rest of our lives with smiles on our faces, telling friends and family about our crazy days in Canada, when we learned to ski and snowboard, tried our hand at curling, hiked our way through the Rocky Mountains, listened to whales chatter in the Pacific Ocean and made life-long friends from across the globe.

We still have one more year ahead of us in the great white north, and close friends whom we can’t wait to continue enjoying life with, and I’m sure many more amazing people we have yet to meet. I say, bring it on!

Already April!

It's April - holy moly, how did this happen already?! I hope everybody had an amazing Easter holiday!

We spent ours in Kelowna, a beautiful city in interior British Columbia, situated on some stunning lakes and in the midst of Canada's little-known and under-appreciated wine country. Our friend Angie's family was kind enough to include us in their Easter celebrations, complete with her hilarious, big Italian family, home-cooking from Nonna (their adorable Italian grandma), Farmer's markets (Kelowna is known for its produce), wine tastings and a full-on Easter-egg hunt in her family's orchard. We were too lazy to take any photos ... oops! But just imagine rolling hills, lakes and orchards full of trees that are still brown from winter but are just beginning to blossom in white and pink buds.

Ben and I have been staying busy and have continued to enjoy an unseasonably warm winter, which unfortunately came to an abrupt halt when we got a bit of a snow storm a few night ago. I'm hoping for a quick warm-up, but who knows what to expect around here. I'm not holding my breath!

I'm looking very forward to meeting up with my parents in San Franscisco/Napa Valley in just two short weeks, and then a few weeks later making my way to Europe for a three-week tour with Ben! We'll get to visit friends in London and Spain, and then see my fabulous family in Copenhagen, I just can't wait!!

My Social Experiment

Like my mom and sister, and I’m sure my mom’s mom before her, I’m a pretty smiley sort of person. Tennessee has its flaws, but unfriendly people are definitely not among them - the stranger who does not return a smile is more the exception than the rule.

Calgary is quite the opposite when it comes to its street culture and interaction with strangers. Perhaps I’m sensitive or simply pay more attention to these sorts of things, as Ben argues with me on this point. But when a friend came to visit in Calgary a few months ago, she commented that the polite but cold manner of locals was one of the first things that struck her. (And there was no prompting from me on the topic, I might add!)
Don’t get me wrong – most locals are unfailingly polite (they will give you plenty of space, won’t push on the bus, generally say please and thank you and avoid confrontational situations). But I don’t necessarily equate politeness with friendliness, and perhaps this is where the male and female mind differ, and why Ben describes people as being “friendly” while I pick up a different vibe: aloof and brusque, albeit polite, might be the best way to describe the “street attitude” of Calgarians. Much like Danes, I find that once you get them talking, they can be friendly and quite sincere, but it can take some effort to get to that soft interior!

I suppose this strikes me as odd because Calgary is a city the size of Nashville; in bigger cities I’d be more likely to expect this attitude.

To test my perception of Calgarians, over the past few weeks I have begun conducting a very informal social experiment when walking around the downtown streets and Plus 15 pathways during the workdays: I smile at strangers, a part of my countenance that I had partly given up not long after moving here. This is an interesting endeavor for me on days when I’m feeling thick-skinned, and when I just need some entertainment after sitting at a desk for hours.

My (highly unofficial) results have been, for the most part, as expected. The reactions are varied, but mostly I think people simply don’t know how to react to a smiling stranger. I get looks that indicate the smile recipient is questioning my mental stability (“Why in the world would she smile at a stranger on the street?”); I get angry glares (“I was perfectly polite, and now she expects me to smile, too?”); I get indignant huffs (“How dare she laugh at me!”); but on occasion, I DO get brilliant smiles, and those can make my day.

I was discussing this experiment with my loveliest of lovely Spanish friend and she shared the story of her father visiting Calgary from Spain. He continued to smile and greet strangers, only to be met with blank stares. My friend finally told her father he should probably just stop putting himself out there so much, as people would not reciprocate, and she hated seeing him in such a situation; his response was that smiling was his way of making people feel comfortable, and he did not intend to stop!

I still believe in a culture of smiling at strangers, but I suppose it’s also ok if others aren’t accustomed to this very Southern attribute. Just another of the reasons I love traveling and living in new places: there is so much to learn and observe, and so much about yourself that you discover! I, for one, will be tuning into my iPod and reading books while walking around and riding the bus for the next year or so, and taking the Calgarian street culture with a grain of salt :)

A Quick Ode to Nashville

I know this blog is supposed to be about Canada, but I must digress for a moment to write about my super duper hometown south of the border...

When I saw today that Gwyneth Paltrow was offering a write-up on her blog about Nashville, I was skeptical. What sort of real advice could a big-city actress possibly divulge about a friendly southern city that prides itself on an eclectic mix of modern, old-fashioned and just down-home South?

Well, I ate my words (or thoughts, at least), because she did a pretty good job of pointing out some of Nashville's best, including the more obvious like Robert's Western World, the Ryman and Loveless Cafe (a gimme, really), along with a few lesser known spots like my old haunts The Family Wash, Margot and Marche, and even a few new spots that I have yet to try since moving northward. Now I'm jonesing for a trip home to bask in all the good eating, drinking and music that Nashville serves up every day!

Read Ms. Paltrow's aforementioned blog here: GOOP

More Photos for your Enjoyment

We had to bid farewell to our good friend Alicia a few weeks ago as she headed to London for another adventure, but not without a final ski trip to Lake Louise! This winter has been unseasonably warm, making for some beautiful days on the mountain (if not the best snow conditions).

We also enjoyed a foray deep into the Calgary Farmer's Market and then took a stroll along the Bow River which is already melting. Last year it was frozen solid until the end of April, so things are looking up! The huge chunks of ice alongside the river are evidence (I hope) of an early and beautiful spring coming our way, although if I've learned anything about Calgary in the past 17 months, I'm sure it has at least one more cold spell/snow storm in store for us!

Photo Updates!

Have I mentioned yet that I was lucky enough to go to the Vancouver Olympics last month?!

Sadly, Ben is in the middle of "busy season" and could not escape work to join in the fun, but Almudena and I managed to sneak out for a short but sweet weekend. It was all completely last minute - we booked airfare on a whim when a sale popped up a few weeks prior to the Olympics, booked one night in a hostel about a week later, and purchased event tickets the day before we flew out.

The atmosphere was beyond amazing - I have never seen such goodwill in the midst of huge crowds and long lines. We attended the women's mogul skiing event at Cypress (the infamous mountain which experienced delays and cancellations after downpours washed out much of the venue - and yes, we were watching our event DURING said downpour, but that is a different story!) We saw an American win gold and a Canadian win silver, and were still in the city (although on our way out) at the moment the first Canadian Olympian won gold on Canadian soil. From inside our hostel, we could hear cheers throughout the streets ... and man was there a party that night!

I met up with my fabulous cousin from Cali and her husband, and the girls had a photo-op with the superstar of the moguls event - Canadian Snowman, who was sporting not only his Canadian flag, but also a Molson Canadian beer :) After hours in freezing rain at that event, the next day was absolutely gorgeous - sunny and warm, so quite a treat for Almu and I after a cold Calgary winter! I just love Vancouver - the entire city seems to be on the water, with harbors and beaches all around...

Trucking On in the North

Many of you have been hearing rumblings of this for a while now, but it's official: Ben and I are extending our time in Calgary by one year!!

After much debate, we decided it's the best choice for us right now - life is pretty darn good here and the winter has been significantly milder this year, making the decision a bit easier! Of course don't ask how I feel when it drops back to -30 degrees in December!

We're looking forward to another fabulous summer in the Rocky Mountains (one was just not enough, not when summer is so short!) and one more ski season before heading southward again. If all goes as planned, we should be home sweet home in May 2011. Until then ... cheers and happy travels!! (Yes, if you have not made it up to visit yet, we are giving you an extra year of leeway, so come see us - this amazing area has to be one of the world's best-kept secrets!)