If all the world’s a stage, and all the men but players, then who hands out the programs?

On June 23 I left Inuvik. Dave and my nephews came to see me off while Kim stayed home with the baby and the dogs. The night before I left we had a bbq with all the friends I had made up north. A few biologists who knew Dave and continuously bumped into me until we just had to hang out, and a couple of neighbours close to the family attended.

My final week in Inuvik was filled with a bit of boating, a few hikes and lots of time with the nephews. Finally my massage business picked up and I squeezed in all the requests I could. The last couple days I couldn’t even picture myself leaving. Aaron knew I was going and offered to call me every morning to wake me up as he didn’t know how I’d get up without him. Jacob had grown accustomed to having me around and finally let me comfort him and join in his stories. Ethan of course would never know I’d been there except for maybe a slight physical memory when we meet next?

Saying goodbye at the airport was so hard. Aaron cuddled in my arms looking slightly confused and sad while I cried. Jacob wanted to go potty. Knowing that we’d grown so close and I have no idea when I’ll see them again, I started to realize how people can be content to not travel all the time.

Two days later I arrived in London, Ontario for a friend’s wedding. Was great to see the bride as she ran errands and tried to keep herself sane the night before. Once she took off for the night the rest of us, bridal party and myself prepared signs for decorating the car and other random events the next day to entertain the groom and hopefully enable him to sleep also!

Early in the morning we accompanied Meg to get her hair done. I appointed myself the photographer and think I got some pretty neat shots of her hair, getting ready and the ceremony. As much as I typically love my little powershot, having a real camera would have made a huge difference in terms of zoom and working with different lighting. During the reception, I quit my photographic endeavors and devoted myself wholeheartedly to the food, the cake which one of the bridesmaids had made – it was amazing! And then to the dancing.

The humidity was not ideal for dancing, after about 30 minutes I was soaked; visibly. No amount of toweling off in the washroom helped. I even tried to wrap my stomach in a papertowel bandage at one point. Not effective. The moment I moved it ripped and slid down. Rather than having a few meters of papertowel appear from beneath my dress on the dance floor I quit where I was and resigned myself with the thought that there were no eligible men there anyways!

Side note on the cake. The bridesmaid who made it is not a professional cake maker or decorator. She did an amazingly beautiful job and had difficulty finding appropriate cake toppers, so I encouraged her with the selection of a large pink foamy M and blue foamy K for the bride and groom’s initials. Later on, someone remarked that it looked like Sesame Street. Consequently the largest cake ended up with the inscription “this wedding is brought to you by the letter M, the letter K and the numbers 2010”. The bride and groom loved it! One friend lacking a sense of humour thought we were cruel when she first saw what we were doing, and her opinion never changed.

To really finish the day in the best way possible we all went to a pub that night. Coincidentally there just happened to be a live band there who specialized in east coast music – the bride and grooms favourite! The one man band was awesome as he played songs especially for them, made them dance and offered numerous dedications along with honouring all our requests. It could not have been planned more perfectly, and was most perfect for not having been planned at all!