December 18/12

I got spoiled today!

When I went down to collect Etienne at hometime, I didn't notice a big black bag on his desk until he handed it to me; it contained a medium sized present, brightly decorated in Winnie the Pooh xmas paper, for me!  Another Birthmas offering :)

I lugged it home, all excited to know what it was, but when I got here, I was surprised again by a package waiting by the front door, for me!  Since Etienne didn't know anything about it, I knew that meant it had to be from Baby K and her house of boys, which meant it was my birfday/xmas present...hot damn!  After the unhappy day at work, two surprises!

Etienne was concerned about the package from my sister, as it was from Amazon.ca, and he had placed an order just today, so I ripped right into that one first.  Baby K. and her boys had given me the Blu-ray of To Kill a Mockingbird, and a hard cover copy of the book.  While this might not sound exciting to some people, you have to understand that I LOVE reading, and that book was one of the few from my mandatory reading in high school that really and truly appealed to me (along with The Chrysalids by John Wyndham).  I had to read some horribly awful "classics" in high school, such as The Lord of the Flies, which I hated so much, I refused to finish it, and actually took zeroes on the assignments for that unit in English; but Mockingbird is something special.  The themes of youth and innocence, mixed with racism and benevolence...how could this story not touch my heart and mind?

It turned out that Etienne had ordered these for me as well, but luckily, he had only just done so, and was able to cancel those items before the order had been filled. 

As if those gifts weren't enough to nudge me on a sentimental journey through time, Etienne's gift tripped a full-blown nostalgia: he had given me a home BINGO game!  Complete with the little balls and the cage, a set of cards, chips, and a ball board.

You see, as a little girl in the North, Bingo played a significant role in my life.  Mummy called Bingo for the local TV station on weekends to earn some extra cash, while I sat with Gramma, playing it.  I remember thinking about how important I was because my Mummy was on TV, and I loved playing Bingo with Gramma, who started to buy me my own cards as I got older and could sit through a game.  I can remember running from the back wing of the seniors' home where Gramma lived to the front wing to buy cards for Gramma on Saturdays.  On at least one occasion, Mummy took me to the station with her, and I watched Bingo being called live in the tiny storefront studio of the local broadcaster.  There were very few leisure activities available in small town NWT on those frozen sub-Arctic weekends, but Bingo was one of them, and its prevalence in the community has woven itself into my memories,

So many wonderful memories...

...Wish you were here.