Northern Speakeasies AKA North Mart

One of my favourite parts about vacation preparations is buying tiny, trial/travel-sized products. Unfortunately, our North Mart has an embarrassing selection of trial-sized products. I believe right now they are offering one brand of shampoo, no conditioner, trial-sized Lady Speed Stick, a small bag of cotton balls, and super cheap Gillette Sensor razors- not a trial-sized product by any means. I had a Gillette Sensor as a young teenager, it was the first razor I owned. I'm not sure how that classifies it as a trial-sized product, but okay, North Mart, go for it.

In light of dental work I've had lately (the first in many years- oops) I wanted to bring mouthwash on holidays. If you've ever shopped in a Nunavut grocery store, you know that such a product is locked behind a cabinet. Any products here that contain alcohol are locked up. This includes mouthwash, hairspray, rubbing alcohol, nail polish remover, Purell, and vanilla. Although I am a mentally sane person in most ways, I always find asking to get into the cabinet uncomfortable. I'm clearly not a user of inedible alcohol products, but I always know that for one split second the employee is asking themselves, "Okay, is this girl just going to drink this hairspray later or should I let her take one?"

This evening I asked a North Mart employee, "Can I get in there?" referring to the locked cabinet, and I immediately thought, "Oh great, Jaime. That doesn't sound desperate!" It's funny: even though I intend to use the products legitimately, I always tell myself I have to seem convincing of it. Mouthwash was all I went to North Mart for but I told myself, "You can't check out with just mouthwash, you'll look insane!" Yes, I really do have these thought processes.

Maybe I analyze things too much, or maybe I'm just delirious since I'll be in Ontario 48 hours from now. Nobody needs to relax right now more than I do and I'm so thankful I can do starting around tomorrow at 4:30pm.

I believe I already said this but...so long suckers!

Extra extra, read all about it...
I forgot to include some photos!


Oh, is it really 11:30pm? Hmm, I don't feel sleepy.


2:30am. Nope, not falling asleep anytime soon.


3am and the sun is up. Oh goody.


My okpik collection. I love these things. I'm not really into Inuit art, save for okpiks and Kenojuak Ashevak prints (if I could afford one). So while my carving collection remains at a measly 2, my okpik collection continues to grow.

Vacation Pretend Scrapbook

Well, it's one week until I leave on holidays for a few weeks. What does this mean? It means I'm literally unable to form a thought that doesn't revolve around vacation. I feel myself becoming more useless in social situations. The only thing circulating through my head is, "Arby's, McDonalds, Wendy's, Starbucks, Timbits, malls, pavement, trees, American Eagle in person!, flights, layovers, family, home-cooked meals by Mom, beaches, cake, Sunripe, Lake Huron, Canatara Park..." and really, I could go on for a long time.

It's also the only time I allow myself to get frustrated and annoyed with the north. Right now I've nearly reached the end of my rope when it comes to potholes and slow drivers.

In general, I love the north and I'm glad it's different from the south. But right now, what I wouldn't give to go to McDonalds at 1am and then take a stroll through a 24-hour Shopper's Drug Mart. I'm not like this any other time except for when I know it's coming very soon. And really, isn't that the best way to be? I rarely think about the south between holidays, it's only the week before that I become antsy to leave.

I'm surprisingly less stressed out this time around. Last August as I was preparing to leave, it felt like there was so much to do. Now I think I'll be able to get away with some light cleaning and packing my clothes.

And because I'm literally unable to think of anything except vacation, here is a pretend scrapbook of photos I may possibly take during the next few weeks:


But of course. First meal for sure.


My journey then brings me to Edmonton.


And the famous mall.


Oh yes, god love the mall.


Mom and Dad, I'm totally kidding. (Only I'm not, but I hope they believe in reverse psychology.)


Canoeing in this park anyone?


Then two weeks of beautiful Lake Huron.


And many a peaceful drive.

I likely won't be updating until I get back, so the fake pictures will have to do for now. See ya, suckers!

Labels and Coincidences

1. I added a list of all my entry labels on the sidebar. Now if you're here looking for information, this will make the search through entries easier.

2. I am going through all my entries without tags and adding tags. It struck me just how many names of commentors are names I recognize now from work, town, friends, etc. It's such a small world here, but it's great knowing people are walking around here and my blog helped them or inspired them or whatever it does.

3. It was a whopping 7 Celsius today. Outside, I thought, "I never thought 7C could feel like summer but here we are." I wish I had an explanation for why it feels so much warmer than it actually is. I don't know why a sunny 7C is t-shirt weather here and warm jacket weather in Ontario. It's more than a state of mind.

4. If you live in Iqaluit and you're one of those people who drives 20-30km the whole way down Niaqunngusiaq Road, just know that I'm out there and I'm getting very annoyed.

God Bless This Mess

Please excuse the mess of a layout this blog is sure to be until I figure out how to get my old template back.

It seems I had no choice but to upgrade my account or something or other. It really annoys me when websites force you to change; I find it usually just makes things more complicated. However, I was no longer able to leave comments on newer blogs which is frustrating. Amanda, I've left you tons of comments that seem to go unposted by crappy Blogger. Jordan & Steph, thanks so much for the kind words, I appreciate it. I'll leave a more detailed comment on your blog when I get this muck sorted out.

In the meantime, I offer you this funny story about ravens building nests on the CBC building in Aklavik, NWT. Gave me a good laugh today. I particularly enjoyed the line about the penthouse suite.

Well it's 10pm and the sun is shining. Better get cracking on fixing this template.

EDIT:
Well I figured out the commenting problem. Turns out it had nothing to do with my classic layout, it was Firefox. ARGH. Wish I'd known that before I changed it. I've got it back mostly to how it was, but it's just not the same. I had that template for 3 years with no intention of changing it. Ugh, technology!

EDIT AGAIN:
Reverted back AND I can comment. Now there was a solid 2 hours wasted! It's time to get some sleep. Lesson of the day: Firefox for Mac sucks. Looks like I'm stuck with Safari if I want to comment on newer blogs. Anyone else have problems? Basically my Firefox forgets I'm signed in when I'm on blogs. The dashboard is fine, it's just blogs. So when I go to leave a comment and select my profile, I can't access anything. Oi...okay seriously, sleep now.