Just When You Think You've Got It All Figured Out...

At first the whole deal with knowing nothing about the city I moved to was fun, because I was constantly making new discoveries, exploring places, etc., etc. It was grand! But now, honestly, I'm getting quite tired of getting lost, getting mixed up, not knowing exactly what's going on. Seems we take a lot of things for granted when we're too comfortable and familiar with things. Like garbage. And recycling...

I was so proud of myself when I managed to figure out Ottawa's recycling program. You see, garabage and recycling day is Friday, so I'd always leave my little bag of garbage at the corner of the driveway and my landlord would take my recyclables, for some reason I haven't figured out. But two weeks ago, he wasn't in sight so I dropped them myself into the black plastic bin at the end of the driveway. I came back from work that afternoon to find most of my recycleables looking quite sad and rejected, sitting at the corner of the driveway. Mortified, I ran my juice jug and three metal cans back into my apartment. What had I done wrong, why were MY things rejected when everything else was taken? Anyway, I checked it out on the internet to discover that black bins are for cardboard and paper, and blue bins are for glass and plastic. Ah-ha! So let me tell you, I was so proud to prepare my recycleables on Friday, and put them into the right boxes and do it properly! So there I was, marching down the driveway, arms brimming with a bag of garbage, squashed cardboard boxes and de-labelled jugs and cans, when I made a horrible discovery: not one house on the entire street had any garbage out. I went back into the house where the landlords were eating breakfast. "I'm confused!" I said to them, "Is today garbage day?" A cardboard box fell from underneath my arm where it had been pinned to my side. "Oh, we got a notice, garbage day was switched to Wednesday!" One said said to me, and added sheepishly; "I guess we should have told you!"

Anyway, I've just returned to Ottawa from a nice weekend back home in Montreal. I know I've spoken of my misadventures with the city buses before and once again, I had to take a cab home. This time, it was because the first bus had to take a detour because of construction. So I missed the connecting bus that comes only once an hour.

Oh yeah, and on Saturdaymy mom and I went shopping together and I bought myself a really nice vase to put up on my brand new shelves in my place. About 20 minutes later, while still in the mall, I dropped it on the tiled floor and it shattered into a gazillion pieces. Of course, the store didn't have another one like it, but my mom, angel that she is, bought me a similar one to replace it. It's not the same, but I still like the replacement.

I'm hoping this week will be a better week!