Vacation Update

Just back from a lovely vacation weekend in Montreal.  The goal was to relax, watch some TV and let someone else handle the cooking and cleaning.  Some people prefer to have an active vacation with lots of plans and new sights but when I do that, I always come home feeling like I need another vacation.

Three nights of being able to sleep right through until I naturally woke up, that’s the height of luxury these days.  It’s the first time in months I haven’t been woken up in the middle of the night to deal with some minor crisis.  I even took some naps if I felt sleepy in the morning or afternoon.  I may have managed to catch up on my sleep deficit.

I did some research on my next novel, reading through some books on burlesque and famous burlesque performers.  It turns out Montreal has a very active burlesque community, so I may go back as I get further along to do some real world research.  I think there’s a very natural tie between burlesque and romance.  Both celebrate women and sexuality.

As a treat, I also bought a biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I was rereading the Little House books last week and I’ve always wondered what happened to her after she married Almanzo.  I was a little disappointed to discover the Little House books were somewhat fictionalized, although I suppose it’s understandable.  Especially since they were written nearly forty years after the fact.  The relationship between her and her daughter Rose was very interesting.  They seem to have clashed constantly but still were enmeshed.  Wonder what Dr. Phil would have said to them?

We had some delicious (if expensive) food through room service.  When indulging, go ahead and indulge thoroughly.  I love a hot breakfast of eggs, toast, bacon, hash browns and fruit, so I got one every morning and it kept me satisfied through most of the day.  We were also naughty and snuck some fruit of our own into the room as a healthy snack.

There were some challenges.  We started out in the middle of one of the most intense snowfalls the city has seen this winter.  Over an hour and a half just to get across the city.  (For reference, usually a half hour trip.)  Part of the delay was because one of our windshield wipers fell off while we were in stop and go traffic on the highway.  It was slow enough that Dave could stop the car, get out and go back to grab the wiper off the ground without holding anything up.  Luckily, we were near an exit so we got off and were hoping we could just pop the thing back on.

No such luck.  It was broken, so Dave walked to a gas station to buy a replacement.  They only had summer wipers and the wrong size, but it was enough to get us to a Canadian Tire.  After that, we were on our way but it was slow going.  It took us five hours to make a drive which usually takes less than two.  But that was the worst of it.

Overall, I enjoyed myself.  I still find I get tense when in a social situation where I don’t know what’s expected of me.  And I’m definitely not used to white linen service.  But the vast majority of the time we were on our own without any schedule or agenda driving us.  And that was just about perfect.