Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Anniversaries

My cell phone contract expired on Sunday.  I went into my existing cellular company to see what offers they might have for me in order to keep my business (none) and also stopped into the Apple store to play around with the new iPhone.  Me being the genius that I am I finally remembered that on Saturday it was officially three years since I moved to Calgary.  Growing up I moved around A LOT and there weren’t very many places that I lived in past the three year mark.  Somehow or other three years in one place feels like a big milestone for me.  The only other spots that have made the milestone?
- Bogota, Colombia (3 years, 3 months…I think…)
- London, England (5 years, 2 months…or so…)
- Vancouver, British Columbia (6 years, minus a few months for a work stint in Rocky Mountain House, AB and Houston, TX)
Aside from the obvious that I am now free to sign a new 3 year cell phone contract and that my 3 year financing term is 6 days away from being complete this time of year seems to play host to a lot of various anniversaries.

- 8 years of being out of university, working in the industry.  Hard to believe I have been out of school for that long!
- 6 years ago my brother and sister-in-law got married!
- 6 years since the Okanagan Mountain Park fire.  It never directly threatened my parents thankfully.  Unfortunately there is another scary fire at the moment…
- 3 years ago we lost my Aunt Mary to lung cancer.  She was also my godmother.  In many ways she was the social butterfly of my mom’s side of the family.  She was always the one to make sure family was together for various holidays.  When I was in second year in university my parents were overseas, but I was still living in the family home, commuting an hour and a half each way to school (it is normally a 30-40 minute drive, rush hour is just that bad in Vancouver).  The long commute…the living far away from my classmates in an empty house…and second year being one of the toughest years in engineering all made for tough times.  She was always there for me, ready to chat or to feed me a home cooked meal.  I miss her a lot.  Here’s me, my mom, my Aunt Marjut (my dad’s sister and my other godmother) and my Aunt Mary the day I graduated from The University of British Columbia.Leana Graduation

12 comments:

Pia [Kaukomara] said...

Hi Leana, I've been reading your blog for a few months now and just love it how you run, swim and bike!

I think Marjut is a Finnish name. Is she from Finland originally by any chance?

Lindsay said...

happy three years in calgary! you might have some luck if you called the cell phone people and told them you were considering switching to a new company? then they might suddenly have a deal for you? i'm not a fan of any cell phone co, but they do come in handy...

a very nice memorial for your aunt! hope you are remembering all of the good memories and fighting off the sadness.

Marlene said...

What a nice little walk down memory lane with some happy anniversaries - and a sad one. It must have been tough to lose your aunt. :( Like Lindsay said, enjoy the happy memories.

teacherwoman said...

3 year cell phone contract? I know my 2 year one is up this August, but I don't know what I want or if I NEED a new phone. I would love a Blackberry but I have a feeling it's way out of my price range! LOL

Missy said...

Oh sweet Auntie! Lost my grandma to lung cancer and mom to liver cancer - it just blows. I know how you miss her. Do something special for her today, somehow, some way.

Mel-2nd Chances said...

amazing that you've lived in so many places! so envious of that!

RunToTheFinish said...

i know you've talked about living all over before, it just seems so amazing and fun to me! lots of fun memories

Anonymous said...

You have lived and experienced some great places. I hate cell phone contracts!

Ali said...

Happy 3 year anniversary. I'm still waiting for my iphone, so can't give a review just yet.

NJ said...

Happy three years! We moved around a lot when I was younger and it was tough at times.

Ya know...I tried Asics and they were too big in the toe box for me and I felt that I moved around too much. It's a good thing we have so many choices to fit each of our preferences!

P.O.M. said...

I've visited Calgary once - it's beautiful. Nice place to be :)

I would be sad to lose my aunt. But I bet she would want you to have the phone you want :)

joyRuN said...

Finally catching up - you got some excellent workouts in the past few days!

So... did you get an iPhone?