Showing posts with label Ottawa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ottawa. Show all posts

Saying Goodbye 

Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - Posted by Amanda Bast
When I transitioned out of my crib as a toddler, my parents bought me cheap, white, plastic coated MDF furniture. When I was older (maybe 5 or 6), they bought me new, pretty, solid wood furniture. With flowers on it. The night we sold the old stuff, and I was using the new stuff, I distinctly remember getting out of bed, going downstairs, and bursting into tears.

Monday night I bought a new car (oh the wonders of a real job!). A 2011 red Mazda 3 GS to be exact. I bought this car from this man. Let me tell you, it is one sexy piece of machinery (the car, not the man). The front looks like it's smiling at me and when I turn the key, the dash makes this little beedilybee! noise and says "Hello!". It also says goodbye when I shut it off. Having Bluetooth means I can call people FROM MY CAR. I can push a button, say "CALL HOME" and it CALLS HOME. Without me ever having to touch my phone. This astounds me. The sound system is marvelous. The heated seats are marvelous. I have a trunk! That I can put things in! Trunk things! Also when I drive, the car doesn't shudder when it switches from 1st to 2nd gear. It starts even if it is very cold. Everything about it is just phenomenal.

Buying a new car means selling my old one. My 1999 silver Honda C-RV (aka the Bastmobile) is in the process of being sold to some university students. As much as I love my new baby, I can't help but feel sad and nostalgic about my good ol' soccer mom car. It was the car I learned to drive on. It has taken me many places and has been a place where I have created many memories. To satisfy my inner memory junkie, and to properly commemorate the Bastmobile, I will now provide you of a list of memories. Feel free to add to my stories in the comments.

* Learning to drive in the empty Farmer's Market parking lot.
Dad (very calmly): Don't hit the pop can.
Me: OK
Dad (still calm): Don't hit the pop can.
Me: OK
Dad (calmly): Don't hit the pop can.
Me: OK
Dad (calmly): You hit the pop can.

* Driving home from high school (wow) with Ben and Owen in the backseat, blasting the Backstreet Boys while driving through downtown St. Jacob's. Yeah, we were cool.

* Cottage road trips, including my first ever solo trip with Zoe the Schnauzer (in which it was thunderstorming and she jumped off of the seat and went halfway under the driver seat), the epic Metal Madness trip with Goo and Leb (we wore bandannas the whole trip and I hit an already dead rabbit), and many other solo trips that were spent singing on the top of my lungs for three hours, resulting in a hoarse voice by the time I reached the lake.

* Driving to the University of Guelph for 4 years, 45 minutes each way. So much thinking, singing, praying and saying hello to the donkeys on the farm near the stop sign happened during these 4 years. Also driving through intense snowstorms on back country roads where my cell didn't work (sorry Mom!). And one speeding ticket.

* Taking various university friends grocery shopping and loading the back end with heavy items. I was paid in Sesame Snaps, which made it totally worth my while.

* Creation of the Dumfries. Tyler, Neil, Kristen and I got unnecessarily lost on the way to a camp in Ayr. I can't really explain this other than it was ridiculously fun and resulted in some solid life-long friendships.

* The next trip to the camp in Ayr. Tyler and I got very very lost on the way to the camp and were an hour late, despite the fact we left half an hour ahead of everyone else. I have never wanted to strangle someone so much in my life. I didn't talk to Ty for the rest of the weekend. We've patched things up somewhat since then. But we still don't like to talk about this incident.

* DTRs. Many of them happened in the C-RV. Some good, some bad.

* Road trip to Ottawa. Probably the longest trip the C-RV has taken. Kristi, I will never forget all the hilarious crap that happened on that trip. It is a huuuuuuuuuge, awesome memory full of FLAVA, the Val, Batman and man-points.

* Picking up friends from the train station (Dawn, I want to do this again soon!). If I stayed in my car, I didn't have to pay the dollar for parking, but one time I really had to pee. I essentially paid a dollar to use the gross disgusting washroom. I'm still upset about that dollar.

* Finally, getting married. Not really. My character in a play getting married, and me coming out to my car between shows to find a "Just Married" sign tied to the back.

When I was little, I did eventually learn to love my new furniture. If you have any other C-RV memories, share them with me. I'm going to think about these memories while my bum is being warmed in my Mazda.

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Ottawa! 

Monday, June 11, 2007 - Posted by Amanda Bast
This is going to be a beast.

Friday morning Krispy iceBaerg lettuce in the fridge! and I revved up the Bastmobile and set out to Ottawa. It was a lovely trip - we sang, we laughed, we cried. We also went on a huge side trip and saw most of Kingston because we couldn't find the dang Wendy's.

We arrived in Ottawa, found the Ottawa Jail Hostel (it used to be a jail), checked in, parked the car, and excitedly found our room. Well, found our room with people sleeping in it at four in the afternoon. With the lights on. Who does that? Our roommates apparantly. So we made our dinner, froz pizz and fru ju. Yum.

Friday night consisted of wandering around town and Kristi showing me some of the sites. We took a self-guided tour of Chateau Laurier. The third floor is lovely. We then made our way to Parliment and discovered that they were still giving tours. Our tour guide was Avril (yes, we giggled) and she took us on a most "convenient" tour. I am not particularly interested in politics, so most things went in one ear and out the other. I focused on things like the hideous outfits that all the tour guides were wearing, the good looking security guards, and how many times Avril said "we", when she should have said "they". Avril, you had nothing to do with the renovation of the library, stop talking as though you did. While in Parliment, it started to thunderstorm. Cool, but Kristi was wearing white, and I was wearing Birks. Not cool. We did eventually make it "home", but we were a little damp.

The common room was a strange place. There were oodles of English people there, and their accents were so real they sounded fake. It felt like we were in the middle of a Brit-Com. At approximately 10pm, it was invaded by screaming Girl Guides.

We eventually went to bed, but found this to be quite a trick. Some of our roomies were sleeping, so we had to be quiet, which is next to impossible when your bunks creak and sound like they are going to collapse. Every time Kristi moved above me, it felt like an earthquake. Every time I tried to sleep on my side, I slid into the ladder (my mattress was on a slant!), and every time I tried laying on my back, the light from in the hall shone directly into my eyes. It was humid and hot, and I was tired and miserable. The best moment was at 1am, when some heaven-sent person found the lightswitch for the blinding hall lights. I think I shed a little tear. Sleeeeeep. Finally. Then someone's cell phone rang. Twice. Thanks, Asian girl who talked on cell phone all weekend.

The next morning was spent at the Museum of Civilization (well, the children's part of the Museum of Civ...the adult stuff was boring) and at the IMAX. We had lunch in an outdoor cafe, and then strolled back to Parliment to go up the Peace Tower. I have a beeping belt. I peed in Parliment, and wish there was a t-shirt in the boutique that said so.

We then caught the bus and headed to Westboro, for WESTfest. We ate some chocolate while the owner of the chocolate store took pictures of us eating chocolate. Then....THEN the Golden Dogs played a show. It was marvelous. Made even more marvelous by the fact they were playing on Golden St., the funny dancing man, the confusing guy in the aviators, and that other guy that looked shockingly similar to Wally. We met up with my friend Matty, and had some Mexican. I mean the food, not the people. I love Mexican food. A whole bunch. And the people. But not to eat.

The evening was spent wandering, watching some dude light himself on fire, watching some other dude sing and play guitar, warding off skeevy short guys, speculating about what happens when a girl sits down in a too-short skirt (where does it GO?), laughing at a bachelorette party, watching some people get a "relationship reading", and drooling in the best bead store I have ever been to in my life. Seriously drool-worthy. And taking a picture of a restaurant called "Mr. Wang's Noodles". Come on, that's funny.

We met a guy from England named Oliver. I won't mention much about him, because he'll probably get his own post in a day or so.

Sleep was a little better, but there were earthquakes everytime Kristi or I moved. My bed was still slanty.

We went to the Art Gallary Sunday morning, and it was a nice, relaxing chill time. I loved the Renoir exibit, but I realized that I don't "get" contemporary art. How is a pile of scraps of carpeting art? I don't get it. I must be dumb.

We spent our last bit of time in Ottawa at Confederation Park playing frisbee. Confed park is where Kristi first learned to play Ultimate, so it was an honour to play frizz in the park where our Ultimate guru first learned to play. A little boy watched us. We were amazing.

We took a few last minute pictures at Parliment (teeeeheeeee) before heading home. The drive home was fun because of our unreal tiredness. We stopped for dinner in an unknown city (Whitby, we learned later) and it was full of FLAVA.

I drove home. And went to bed.

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ottawa 

Wednesday, June 6, 2007 - Posted by Amanda Bast
Kristi and I head to Ottawa Friday morning.

If the Sens win tonight, we will be downtown Ottawa for game 6. Hoooooooyeeeeeeah.

More importantly, THE GOLDEN DOGS! will be in Ottawa when we are! I love THE GOLDEN DOGS! because they are fantastic and fun and wacky. If you've never heard THE GOLDEN DOGS! then you should listen to them right now. Then you will love THE GOLDEN DOGS! too.

Also, never call frozen pizza "froz pizz" because it sounds gross. Almost gross enough to keep me from eating it. Almost.

Tomorrow evening, the kids at Lexington are doing their School House Rock musical. I'm excited to see some of the props I made being put to use! And to see little grade six Charlie sing the pants off the Number 3 song.

I want to go to Wonderland. On the 23rd. :oP

My excitement has taken away my ability to write coherently. I apologize.

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