Going forward but remembering which could be seen as backward but is not

Okay.

Note to self, no more thinking about the past.

Or if you do think of the past, think of all the good things.

Focus.

Here's a picture from yesterday;

Cleo does not like it when I leave her for the balcony

The other day I forgot to let her lick my cereal bowl

so I made an impromptu mistake :)

Let her have milk in her little bowl.

Yeah, so guess who looked at my empty bowl recently

with disdain,

waiting milk in her bowl!

Guess who didn't get milk despite the wailing meows.

I tell you the amount attention that cat gets...

Mat. Anna had a 'never knew that' blog today

so I'm going to do a bit of that...

1. Did you know that Cleo was not mine as a kitten?

Nope, she was a dear friend (hi friend!) of mine's

who had to give her to me due to allergies.

2. Cleo when she first lived with me hid under my gold chair

that first full day, after moving homes and countries

(she like me is a native Michigan dweller)

until I called my friend and Cleo heard her on speaker phone

and then came out from under the chair.

For the next months she would often hide until

I would sing to her, using her name

cleo, cleo how i love you, cleo cleo yes it's true

cleo cleo cleo i love you..

That was some years ago now...

3. Well, I had hid my, like so many others,

want to be a writer

dream but mentioned it recently and surprised

my blog friends.

I took creative writing courses as part of my English BA

and still want to write.

And I do write

but, well, I am more on the cautious practical side.

The I'm-not-married-and-my-family-can't-support-me

type with school loans and so I became a librarian.

5. Only in one of my jobs as a librarian did I actual work directly

in a library. We do a lot of diverse things,

us librarians, and I must say that is one of

the reasons I love being a librarian.

6. I really like marketing, promoting and planning library services.

7. I have a practical business side that surprised even me.

I want to know where the money is going; it shows

the priorities of the business and the library.

8. I am a very fast writer and if I do online chat

I can write whole chatty paragraphs faster

than some can write one line;

it makes for funny chats sometime.

There's Elizabeth talking up a storm while her friend

types a few lines.

In real life the same friend and I can talk equally,

it's just that I type and think with my fingers

quickly.

9. I am teaching myself Excel for the job interview.

Should probably get back to that...

10. One thing I was really lucky in:

most people when they study in Canada but are from the States,

unless they marry a Canadian,

have a hard time staying here.

I on the other hand at the end of my BA,

after paying for at least two student visas,

found out that it was my legal right to be a Canadian

as I was born of a Canadian Mother.

So I got the paper work, mailed it off and 7 weeks later,

poof! Canadian and American citizenship.

I could of been both since I was an infant, apparently.

FYI it also was because of the year and time I was born

and that those laws still applied;

there are new laws for ones born after me so

it is not always that easy.

11. I ended up coming to the Orthodox church because I

was able to stay in Canada as a new but-could-of-been

Canadian-my-whole-life-Canadian.

The day my citizenship card came in the mail

a Chinese friend at the time (we've lost contact since)

took me out to Tim Horton's to celebrate

my getting my 'maple card' as he called it.

He then proceeded to order himself a coffee and did not

ask me if I wanted anything! So funny.

I was living in British Columbia (i.e. west coast 2 hours from Seattle)

at the time.

Such a special time in my life, those years.

It's been a good ride so far,

and I've lived in Canada full time since fall of 2004,

right after I was chrismated...

other than 6 months of my almost 7 years in the

Orthodox church have been in Canada;

my knowledge of Canadian geography is in part based

on what churches are in what province.

Crazy hey? True though.

And here I am writing from the nation's capital;

a librarian in a city of librarians,

a government town that I have come to love.

Anyway,

there's the story of things you probably did not know about me

and my beloved Cleo Cat too!

Thanks for letting me remember these things with you,

I feel much cheered...