This week has been so busy but fun. I have been out with different friend groups 4 nights this week – but the highlight was the Banana Bar Crawl
He said
There won’t be much Emelia update this week as her routine was pretty usual, but also because our focus for everyone in the house was to help Testza and girls get packed up and ready to move back to London this week. Picking up from last week the theme was getting down to Kitchener any time we had free to help Testza put her life into whatever storage we could create. Danielle was down Monday evening after work, and I was down there Thursday during the day as I had the day off work. It was a lot of back & forth and exhausting work, but in the end we made it all work, even if it came right down to the wire Thursday night at 6pm when she had to be out of the house in Kitchener.
Without really paying attention to it I had Danielle & I going to three different concerts this week. Thursday night there was Quicksand/Fucked Up at The Palasad Social Bowl. Last night Metric/Broken Social Scene/Stars at Canada Life Place. And then tonight we’re going to see Bahamas at Centennial Hall. The tickets were all purchased at separate times in a range between six months ago to a few weeks back and as you can guess I did not look at the calendar until late last week when I recognized the crazy itinerary I had built for us. When you add in helping Testza and the girls move this week it was a lot.
The Thursday show Danielle opted to skip in order to stay with Testza and the girls who were spending their first night back in London before the house was ready, with us. At Danielle’s urging and even after an extremely long day of packing up Testza down in Kitchener, I went to the show and I am so glad I did. It was a nice break and I was seeing a band that I had a special connection with my brother Greg with. It was the first band in my adult life that introduced him to, so it meant a lot to go see them as I know if Greg were here he likely would have gone with me.
Last night was a night neither Danielle or I would miss. Stars has long been a mutual favourite of Danielle & I, but also a lot of our family memories of festival going and record listening involves all three bands. We have countless videos of Emelia as a wee girl signing along (with me) to songs by all three bands. In fact Broken Social Scene’s album Feel Good Lost, was the only one in car rides that could get Emelia to nod off when we needed her to have a nap. She started to recognize the cover and songs and used to say, “no, not the sleep record“. So, it was a special date night for us that would have us reminiscing about a lot of our family moments. And, it ended up being the perfect remedy for all the packing and down & back to Kitchener this past week.
Tonight we have Bahamas – another Canadian band that we have lots of family festival memories tied to, so we are looking for it, a well. And as much as it was probably stupid to not pay closer attention to our calendar before buying all the tickets, I’d be lying if I said that even through it was a lot if not maybe too much this week it also was very nice diversions from all the packing and lifting.
She said
The last few weeks have been beyond mentally and physically exhasting. There have been countless trips back and forth to Kitchener supporting our sister in law and her daughters to move back to London. The whole ordeal has been mentally draining for all of us, none more than Testza. To say she is been through it would be the biggest understatement of the century. No one should have had to endure what she has had to over the last 4 years. So are the rest of us burnt out, yes, but considering what Testza has been through over the last few months the rest of us are just trying to be there to support. So what did that support look like this week? Monday I drove down after work and Testza filled another 20 foot moving pod ready to be moved to London. This was all their big furniture plus a bunch of bins. I am not going to lie I am proud of the little duo of Testza and I—we are stubborn in the best way and just get shit done! John made it to Kitchener the day of the last move out of the Kitchener house, it was a very long day for all involved. It was pushing 8:30 before Testza and the girls along with John made it to London to finally crash for the night.
In the middle of these gruelling days were our normal lives. It meant busy days at work, balancing life and Emelia’s training, school work (an exam, paper and mock trial prep this week) as well as Emelia’s never-ending social life. Emelia’s social life started with she and Bri going out on Wednesday night, then Thursday she was out with a big group of the girls from work for the Banana Bar Crawl, Friday was another night out with her bestie Bri and then last night Emelia and Chelsea were out. I am tired just listing that all off.
This past weekend it was a mixed weekend but both days were long and exhausting. Friday night I was over at Testza’s right after work to help with more unloading and unpacking, I was there really late making another long days. Saturday I was over again in the morning helping Testza unload another two of the rental vans. I was able to stay until 5:00 before needing to go get John at work for our date night. Today we were up again early but shifting gears to go to the trailer to start the end of season pack up. So needless to say sitting down tonight listening to the Bahamas is exactly the end of weekend we need. I am hoping next week will be a little less crazy but with life lately I have a feeling it will be another long and busy week.