a peek inside the fishbowl

13 Nov, 2010

Friday November 12, 2010

Posted by andrea tomkins in: Ottawa

Friday was a teeny bit hectic.

I didn’t have a peaceful night’s sleep the night before – I was too wired – and I was up at the crack of dawn to get ready for the MomCafe event at which I was speaking.

I washed my sweater. It may have shrunk a bit, but I ‘m not sure, but the shoulders were decidedly damp as I ran around the house making sure everyone was up and properly breakfasted.

Until a few days before I had forgotten it was a P.D. day and that I had stupidly scheduled a parent-student-teacher meeting at 7:45. I would have preferred to be relaxing at home before my event but that was not going to be happening..

I walked out the door on Friday morning wound up tighter than a Sealy Posturpedic spring. And this spring was ready to sproing.

The teacher meeting was fine, and after it was over I shuttled the girls off to a friends (they went to Gotta Paint to make Christmas ornaments) and made it to my event with time to spare.

It was great. There were a few friendly faces in the audience too – which I really appreciated. My friend Anna Epp, the event photographer (here are her pics!); Lara who is slowly taking over the blogosphere with Losing It, Kids in the Capital AND her own blog; Donna from Elation Centre, and Sara-Lynn from Macaroni Kid (who was speaking with me!). Everything went off without a hitch, and I got to meet some fantastic women and munch on a lovely lemon-blueberry scone from Viva Loca.

I practically floated out of the room, picked up the girls, went home for lunch and a nap, did a quick phone-interview with a local paper, and then took the girls and the dog for a short visit to Britannia Beach. Unfortunately – except for a small benchless stretch of lawn – almost every part of the park around Britannia Beach is off-limits to dogs, so we picked up and went to Andrew Haydon instead. (Which proved to be a much more dog-friendly part of Ottawa. Yay!)

The light was just about as perfect as you could get. The water was still. The grass was green. The leaves were crunchy. The trees were welcoming.

Overall: a day for the record books.

Lots of sniffs

sunny bike path

Benched

Crunchy leaves

Andrew Hayden Park, Ottawa

The scene at Andrew Hayden park, Ottawa


3 Responses to "Friday November 12, 2010"

1 | BeachMama

November 13th, 2010 at 9:42 am

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Lovely, as always, to see you yesterday Andrea. You are a great speaker and I look forward to hearing you speak more in the future.

2 | Finola

November 13th, 2010 at 9:58 am

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You did all that and fit in a nap too? I am in awe, Superwoman!

3 | Lara

November 14th, 2010 at 11:33 am

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I’m glad the day turned out so nicely! It was great to see you, you did a great job speaking! You should have a peek at my blog to see how the rest of MY Friday went :P

Slowly taking over the blogosphere is super fun too :)

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  • Gretchen Humphrey: I had a beautiful bee& birdbath filled with a solar fountain and dozens of antique marbles that were suddenly disappearing. At first I thought my
  • Jinjer: I am sobbing reading this post. And you're right, companion is not enough. Little furry treasured gifts that they are. Thanks for sharing cutie-pi
  • Karen: Dear Andrea, Mark and your daughters I am so very sad for your family xxx Piper was/is my favourite Instagram post. You shared with us so intimately
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  • Carla Slocum: I am sitting here yet again crying at your loss. We have known that loss with Asta the WFT our first pup but now have the enormous gift of Stryker the
  • Janelle Brown: Dear Andrea Thank you for sharing Piper’s story with her followers. I empathise with your grief and emptiness as I lost my 14 year old Westie last
  • Natasha McReynolds-Nicholl: My god reading this is heartbreaking. December 1st was the as you describe longest day of my life, we lost out beautiful WFT hazel. Pipers final momen

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My name is Andrea and I live in the Westboro area of Ottawa with my husband Mark and our dog Piper who is kind of a big deal on Instagram. We also have two human offspring: Emma (24) and Sarah (22). During the day I work as a writer at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. I am a longtime Ottawa blogger and I've occupied this little corner of the WWW since 1999. The Fishbowl is my whiteboard, water cooler, and journal, all rolled into one. I'm passionate about healthy living, arts and culture, travel, great gear, good food, and sharing the best of Ottawa. I also love vegetables, photography, gadgets, and great design.

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