June 3rd

Hello from Windsor, Ontario! I made it home yesterday. I was pretty tired as I couldn't sleep during my travels. Dale from work drove me to the airport in Fort Simpson on Monday. I flew out at 5 pm. We arrived in Yellowknife about an hour later and waited a couple of hours for the flight to Edmonton. Arrived in Edmonton around 10 pm then waited to fly out of there at 12:30 am. I had purchased a Best Seller book from the Northern before I left on Monday thinking that would be the best way to kill those little waiting hours and it worked well. I chose a mystery and it passed the time nicely. I just have a few pages left to read today to finish the book. It's "The Calling" by Inger Ash Wolfe.

My most difficult time was on the plane from Edmonton to Toronto. I was tired but not in the mood to sleep and it was dark outside, the kind of dark I hadn't experienced for 3 weeks. I went through the moment of really hoping I was doing the right thing and mourning what I had left behind. I tested out my cd player earphones and they worked with the entertainment system on the plane so I watched a Canadian film for rest of the way back to Toronto. I didn't choose one that would lift my spirits at all, being the dramatic person I can be. I chose a film about an Eskimo man who was diagnosed with TB in the 1950s. He lived on Baffin Island with his wife and two daughters. A medical boat came in and everyone from the area boarded for an exam. He was found to have TB and had to stay on the boat to travel to Quebec for treatment while his wife and daughters had to go back home alone.....home was a tent on the land, he was a hunter and they lived a traditional lifestyle. The adjustment to life in a french city was overwhelming for him and his journey to wellness was not easy. There was more to the story but I'll leave it at that. The pictures of the northern landscape and people of course pulled at my heart even more as I was already in that place of longing. It was therapeutic to say the least and allowed me to shed the tears that needed to be released.

As I put my suitcases on the scale in Fort Simpson I gently pleaded with the powers that be that I would meet up with them again in Toronto. The young guy that was the ticket taker there assured me they would make it. And they did. They came off the luggage mover very close to the start of the luggage which was a nice touch since that had been a decent sized plane and seemed pretty well full of passengers.

Steve was waiting for me as soon as I got through the doors and it was really good to see him. We were both very happy in that moment and the moments that have followed.

Toronto was my least favourite part of this journey. After the beauty and peace of the north I was not in the mood for concrete and traffic. I fell asleep around Milton and didn't wake up until Belle River, about 20 minutes outside of Windsor.

I was wondering how I'd feel about Windsor after having such a negative reaction to Toronto, which in the past has never bothered me at all. Thankfully Windsor is still my "city of choice". I felt peaceful and at home as we entered the Rose City.

Coming home to a new apartment was a bit challenging. Again I wasn't sure what to expect. Brady had done an awesome job setting the place up. He had hung the art and set the rooms up really well.

I settled in and did a couple of chores that helped me feel part of the space. I rested off and on throughout the day. We were planning on having fish and chips for supper.....Windsor has an awesome fish and chip place, but I really felt like cooking dinner here. We have a bigger kitchen than our last apartment and it felt like the right thing to do. So we had a home-cooked meal, which we haven't had together in a while since I pretty much stopped cooking for anyone other than myself last January. I really enjoyed making the meal and Steve enjoyed helping and eating it:)

I slept really well last night and this morning started unpacking. The puppies are curled up on the bed resting. They were happy to see me also. They have really settled in here nicely, the set up of this apartment suits them really well.

It took us a bit of time to figure out how to get the wireless router set up.....being the non-techies we are. It was an easy job once the Staples guy told us what to do. So I am able to continue working with my little pink lady in the comfort of my living space.....whichever comfortable spot I find myself in at any given time. I highly recommend wireless to anyone who's set up can adapt to it.

Being away for the time I was allowed Steve and I to work on communication. Since there was no way we could be together in person we really had to talk everything through. We promised one another that we will maintain that communication to continue moving forward with our relationship and our hopes for our relationship into the future. Being such an emotional day we had good opportunities for practice and I was very happy with the results.

The pictures today are from the flight home. The plane is the one I flew on from Fort Simpson to Yellowknife, those planes all have beautifully painted tails, different animals on some of them. Then the polar bear inside the airport for all of us losers who travel to the north and don't see any living ones. And finally outside the Yellowknife airport. Yellowknife does not enjoy the same temperate climate as Fort Simpson. It was really cool there and Slave Lake was still mostly covered in ice. It didn't look stable, you could see crack lines from the air, but it was still mostly covered.

Edmonton was not as scenic from the air as Calgary. I don't feel the least bit inclined to want to go out of my way to visit there again. Calgary will always be a beautiful picture in my mind and I would love to go back there one day.

So, that's where everything stands as of right now. I am going to use this space to comment on life in general as I live it. I believe that we can experience joy and adventure in life wherever we are.

Love to all of you who are supporting me on this journey of discovery......