Out of Town

Went to Ottawa for the long weekend and I had such an amazing time!!

Thursday

Went to work as usual and I was so excited about the Ottawa trip that I couldn’t wait for the day to end. Thankfully we were only working till 3pm that day and then having a company barbeque afterwards. It was good but I so badly wanted to go already!! I left work at 5pm then met up with Jerry to do a bit of shopping. We saw this really cute jacket for him and it fit him so well. A guy even walked up to him to ask where he got it! We had originally planned on leaving Thursday night but we couldn’t so we decided to take the 7am bus for Ottawa the following day. It was so much fun just getting ready for the trip and packing our stuff together. We finally narrowed it down to a big duffel bag a back pack, and my hand bag. Whew!

Friday

Woke up at 5am...actually I got up at 15mins till 5am since Jerry’s alarm is 15minutes in advance. We both lacked sleep but since we were so eager to go, we were up so fast. We made sure we hadn’t left antyhing behind then took a cab to the bus station. It was all new to me… I’ve never been down town in the wee hours of the morning. It was kinda weird and a bit creepy going along Queen Street at 6am when it was still dark and the streets were empty except for a few here and there. I was thinking that I would probably be uncomfortable if I had to go to work that early and be out that early. It just doesn’t look safe.

So we got to the bus station about 45 mins early and I sat while Jerry tried to find out where our terminal was located. We finally found it and the line was sooo long!! Jerry was saying how if we had only known, we would have gone there earlier. Thankfully they had 4 buses all going to Ottawa at 7am!! God is kind to us. We chose a seat in the back because it was more quiet and spacious. During the ride, we took a short nap, watched a DVD (I had brought my portable DVD player with me), ate, and listened to some music.

We arrived in Ottawa around noon and Leslie picked us up at the bus station in Ottawa. We took a cab back to her place since it was only about 15mins away. Her place was absolutely amazing! Jerry and I loved it the moment we saw it. We dropped off our stuff and went to grab a bite at this Lebanese place where they served good food.

One of the things that were so great about Leslie’s place is the fact that she lives downtown so it is so easy to go everywhere. We walked to the market place where you find cute little shops, boutiques, restaurants, bars, dessert shops, etc… it was really nice. I loved it! I loved how easy it was to go around and the shops were all so cute. I loved how you can find so many things in one place.

We bought ice cream and walked some more then we ate dinner later that evening. Since it was a holiday, the malls were closed so we decided to just rent a movie and hang out at home. We didn’t feel like going to a bar anyway since we were all tired.

Saturday

We went to bed at 2am the previous night so it was such a challenge getting up early the following morning. We woke up at around 10 or 11 am and then we were just lying in bed talking. It’s funny that even though so many years have passed and we’re both older now, we still have our old habits together. Ever since we were younger, we would only see each other every couple of years since she lives in Virginia and I live in the Philippines. But whenever she would come to visit me, we would try to spend as much time together as we could. Shopping, talking about boys, people, experiences… We have a silly habit of talking either before going to bed or when we just woke up or when one of us is in the bathroom putting on makeup or drying her hair… I don’t know why. It has just always been like that and we’ve always been comfortable with each other. I guess partly because our moms were close too.

So, we ended up getting out of bed close to noon!! I was surprised my back didn’t hurt from all the lying down. I was so tired that I didn’t even move the entire time I was sleeping. Even Leslie noticed that I didn’t move an inch! Jerry had called (he stayed with his cousin) and I was surprised that he was up earlier than us. He called to say he was going to meet us at the mall. We met up with him, ate lunch at a place called Oreganos (amazing wings), then we went back to his cousin’s place to return the keys and then we went back downtown to the mall so that we could go around and do a bit of shopping. Leslie and I spent the entire time at Garage Clothing!! We just got too fascinated with the clothes we saw and we tried so many. Of course we ended up buying!!

We found out we won’t be able to catch a bus bak to Toronto on Sunday since the bus station will be closed for Easter… the earliest bus we could catch would be at 12:30 am Monday morning! Jerry and I had decided we would go for it since we both had to be at work Monday. Sucks…

We then decided to go home but first we passed by Loblaws to get some food (yup, by this time we had realized we were spending way too much money on food). We rented another movie for the night and just relaxed. Leslie was so tired that we let her sleep ahead of us.

Sunday

Leslie and I were just too sleepy to get up so we ended up sleeping in till noon. Brian was flying from Virginia and Leslie was going to the airport to pick him up. Jerry was coming to pick me up then we were going to his cousin’s place to pack while Leslie was going to the airport with Doug. Jerry and I met up with Leslie and Brian later in the afternoon downtown and then we went to The Keg to have dinner. It was good that Jerry and Brian got along so well (probably because they both liked to joke around and also due to the fact that they were both very sociable). After dinner, we decided to pass by the ice cream shop to get some ice cream then we rented some more videos and walked back to Leslie’s place. We watched the movie till about 11pm then Leslie called a cab for me and Jerry to take us to the bus station. We took the bus at 12:30am and we slept the entire ride home. We got back to Toronto at about 5am then we called a cab to take us home. We slept for a couple of hours then I went to work. I was so tired I was practically walking with my eyes closed.

Jerry brought me home that night. Leslie had given me a desk lamp which I had asked my dad to setup for me. It was such a fun trip and I really enjoyed it.