Wherever you go, there you are

Last week, E and I were having dinner at the Vietnamese place on Bank (you know the one, right beside the Loonie Store) and we were seated behind a couple having dinner with their two babies and we went to sit down and the mother asked me if it was okay that their child was throwing his food at me and I looked at her and it took me a moment but I realized that I knew this woman from high school.  In fact, more than high school, from Grades 7 through 12, at least.  She appeared to have zero recognition of me and after telling her whatever Baby did was fine, I didn't indicate any recognition either, so I spent the rest of my meal wondering, "Is that Bekki Wallace?" Of course, this is exactly what Google was made for - six clicks later I found out that it was indeed Bekki Wallace (now Rebekka Roy), that she used to be a social worker for Planned Parenthood (respect!) and then married a French-Canadian shipping tycoon (are there really tycoons in Canada?) and had two children and now is KraftyYogaMom Supreme of Old Ottawa South (ie/ my overly-precious neighbourhood).  She has an online business for providing the world with, "bags, playmats, toy buckets, baby mobiles and more using gorgeous material and lots of creativity" called Birdy&Bug (website: http://www.birdyandbug.com/) and writes in our community newsletter (that I never read but always recycle) about "Cardboarding."Here is an excerpt from the Oct 2012 edition:

I’m intrigued by the lasting effect the cardboard challenge had on my family. My husband, Marc-André, spent hours designing and creating an elaborate marble maze (complete with “pits of despair”).  My 3 year old son, Oskar, created a dump truck, a fork lift, a ramp, binoculars, a boat, and many obstacle courses all out of cardboard and other recyclable materials....And so here are my two commitments to you. I’m going to include cardboard creating as a weekly family activity in our household. I shall call it "Makedo Monday’s" and we, as a family, will pick out a project, work on it, play with it and then, if need be, recycle it to make room for next week’s project.  I’ll keep you posted on how this works and take some photos of our creations in my blog at www.birdyandbug.com!

I included the above because that shit deserves to be ridiculed.  It's its own episode of Portlandia.  Also, I like how her penchant for using 'k's instead of 'c's has kontinued with her son, Oskar.

[Aside: Note to self: pitch a Canadafied version of Portlandia to the CBC, call it Old Old Ottawa South.  Topics of constant ridicule to be: unnecessary bilingualism, SUV baby strollers rated for -40C conditions, organic poutine, everyone's love of winter.  First episode to take place on the Canal, everyone standing around on vintage midcentury skates freezing their asses off and trying to keep from falling while commenting on how beautiful it all is.  Does CBC already have this program? Other note to self: watch CBC]

Similar to how it went down in jr high and high school, I look forward to hearing about Bekki's grand achievements, seeing her picture everywhere (there's one in every newsletter, I've since discovered), patronizing the same retail and recreation establishments as she and her ilk, but never actually exchanging words.  Maybe she'll say hi to me in the hall, but I doubt it (even if we are on the same field hockey team). I shall retreat to my ivory tower and read heady books about Important Things and look forward to the day when I will... oh wait, it is that day and I'm still doing the same shit and so is Bekki.

What I am surprised to discover is that none of this actually bothers me.  Yes, I did go look her up on google and Facebook but not really with a sense of emotional urgency or feelings of re/dejection. I don't care that we are not fb friends, I am neither happy nor sad that we have nothing to talk about, and I do not envy her parallel universe.  It's all like a nice piece of furniture that I can admire in the store but have no intention of ever buying.  Power on, Rebekka Roy, sell a million yoga mats!

In other news, I just found out that having a runny nose in wintertime is a condition called Rhinorrhea.  This is absolutely hilarious to me.  Seriously, it's funny, right?