Jen came to Winnipeg on Friday, August 7th, near noon. It was a tearful reunion since we haven't seen each other (or snogged each other) since the last time I visited her and we went to meet Linda in Snogger-Tease around February 2008! It was raining, but it didn't matter. We headed to Costco and Jen bought some steaks for the Friday evening BBQ at my parents' place.
I brought her back to Bruce's house where I'm staying while here. Bruce works on construction up north so I got to see him for the first weekend I was here (he was sick that weekend otherwise he would have been gone the day I arrived). We set her up, showed her around, relaxed a bit, then about 3:30 headed over to my parents'. We spent an hour or so before people started to come over, chatting, laughing, drinking wine, etc.
Here is who was there:
My Mom and Dad (2)
Jen and I (2)
Darrell and his four amazing kids (5)
Aunt Marion and Bob (2)
Victor our neighbour (1)
Brad and Nancy (2)
We had a great dinner, and a fantastic party that ended about 1am. The rain stopped early on in the late afternoon so it was OK to move outside, however everything was set up in the basement, so that is where we spent most of our time.
Jen loved everyone and everyone loved her. We all got along like a house full of friendly Manitobans. Even though I kept adding people to the invite list which made her more and more nervous as the day of her arrival approached (she CLAIMS she's shy... HA!), she pulled it off spectacularly! She was amazing the way she made everyone comfortable, and feel really at home with her. I loved watching Jen engage all of my friends and family as if she has always known them. Hell I just love watching Jen do anything since she's so frikkin hawt!
On Saturday I took Jen first to Osborne Village which is an eclectic place that has a lot of little shops, and other such stuff. We ate lunch at Baked Expectations, wandered around, did grocery shopping, had coffee, and just basked in each other's aura.
Then we headed to "The Forks" which is a historic site at the juncture of the two main rivers that run through the city. It has been turned into a very neat marketplace with shops, buskers, restaurants, outdoor skating (winter), boat docks, and more. We enjoyed the time spent there walking, looking, laughing, talking.
On Sunday I took Jen out to Assiniboine Park (it has the same design as Central Park in NYC). We drove around, saw the English Garden, a statue garden, the botanical gardens, and then met Darrell at 7pm for an amazing free blues concert in the park. We had a fantastic time. After it ended about 9pm we three came back to Bruce's house. I prepared some dinner as we were all hungry. We sat, talked about a lot of things, drank a bottle and a half of Darrell's absolutely fantastic wine, and then about 1.30 Darrell went home, and we hit the sack.
On Monday Jen baked three sweet potato pies. We took one out to Brad & Nancy's place, then sat on their dock in the Red River and chatted for an hour or two. Then we all got in our cars and drove out to Lockport, a well-known place that boats need to traverse locks in order to go from one part of the river to the other part. We had some "world famous Skinner's Hotdogs", and then drove back into town to my parents'. On the way back I got to show Jen my old stomping grounds, the high/junior/elementary schools I went to, the parks I played in, and more. When we got back to my parents' home we had coffee with them and Jen gave them a pie. They loved it! Then we went through the gate in the back fence and took another pie to Victor, chatted with him for a bit, then came back to the house.
On Tuesday morning Jen packed up, and we drove back to the airport. We snogged our teary-eyed farewells for now. She jumped on the 11am flight, and the rest is her story!
Jen, I am so grateful that you came to visit me while I am here in North America. I really appreciate you so much for taking the time and the money to do that for me, and my dad, and my mom. Thank you from waaay deep down inside of me.
I don't know when we will meet again next, but something tells me we will. This is our relationship; this is our friendship. And I cherish, appreciate, and am so grateful that The Universe (and you, and me) provided us with each and every opportunity we have to meet as we move through our lives, our ups and downs, our individual trials and tribulations, our joys and sorrows. I love you!
Cam
P.S. My friend Michelle visited me yesterday. I showed her the photos I had taken of Jen and she said to me, "Jen is HOW OLD? No Way! Holy Fuck! Way to go, sistah!"
