The lemon tree bloomed before the backdrop of winter

Happy spring to those of you who aren’t still in a deep freeze!

March has been a freeze-thaw bonanza: just when it gets beautiful and warms up, in comes a snowstorm. It’s felt like winters have been milder these past couple of years so to have snow essentially from November to March has been wild. Instead of bemoaning my fate, I instead lean in and tell myself that it means more cozy nights by the fire with a book snuggled under a cozy blanket. It’s not much to grasp on to, but it’s honest work.

Absolute slaughter

This past month has seen me do a trivia night and a Pysanky workshop with friends and next week we are doing Bingo! Forget your Carlsberg years, I am onto my Bingo years. The charity trivia night we did is probably the most difficult one we’ve ever encountered. It was really hard and it was probably the one with the lowest scores (for us and the other teams) that we’ve had so far in all of our trivia nights. Honestly, it’s probably pretty difficult to come up with questions that will have enough difficulty to engage the nerds but still has enough range that your average person who has never done trivia before will still enjoy it. We have a pretty solid crew and usually place in the top 5 (of about 20+ teams) and manage to get at least one name drawn for a door prize but none of that happened. You win some, you lose some. The company was great and it was a fun night out.

I had also never done Pysanky before so I headed out to the Ukrainian Community Hall last weekend for a workshop with two friends. Once again I am confronted by the fact that I am #notanartist. We learned the drop & pull method but bought kits to try the traditional method when we all get together for Easter weekend. I remain steadfast in my belief that you should still do things even if you will never be good at them.

As I mentioned in my 2025 wrap-up post one of my oldest and dearest friends is moving here from California. I am happy to say that I finally found her a gorgeous two bedroom in an older, walk-able area of the city. I have to say: damn, the housing crisis is brutal. Despite having a great job with a long tenure, good credit and a reasonable budget, it was a real challenge to find her something that met all of the things on her wish list. I basically searched daily for 3 months to find something that ticked off all of the boxes and it was a very long 3 months. I have no idea what people with bad credit and lower paying jobs do, because this was bonkers. When I booked the viewing the landlord did them in 15-minute increments and folks lined up to get in. I am unsurprised: it was a large place in good price in an expensive neighbourhood close to everything. We hopped on it right after and managed to snag it before anyone else did, so I am thrilled. She gets here next month and I am so stoked to be in the same city as one of my besties.

The shortlist

It’s been an insanely busy and expensive month. The Youngest had a lot of school events, work, and volunteering this month. It is the Eldest’s 18th birthday next week so she is heading to the casino with her brother. Since she is also graduating this year, I paid for her grad photos and we have to search for a dress for prom soon.

We all had dental cleanings booked and in a surprising turn of events, the Youngest needs surgery to remove her wisdom teeth and both Mr. Tucker and I have dental work that needs to also be done. Mr. Tucker and I were also due to get new glasses and even after our benefits paid out the maximum, we still paid an eyewateringly high amount of money on the hardware. On top of the pain of the price tag, I also managed to accidentally smash the emergency button in the bathroom when I went to put my crutch down. Suddenly there was a bank alarm level of noise throughout the entire store and shoppers were heading to the exits mistaking the sound for a fire alarm. Since no one had ever pressed the button before, the staff went into full panic mode trying to turn it off. Basically, I got to stand there embarassed while staff ran around and customers peeked over to see what was happening. Hundreds of dollars AND a mortifying experience? Well, lucky me!

But new glasses are always nice and you never know how bad your eyesight has gotten until you put on those shiny new spec and realize how clearer the world suddenly is.

I do have other news but it’s on hold for now as the details work themselves out. Until then, here is a photo of the gigantic Bay tree that lives in the vestibule of our local diner. This thing is an ABSOLUTE UNIT for being a Mediterranean plant in a northern climate. May we all thrive under as difficult conditions as this guy.

Legend